Transgender Twitch star claims she moved out of HOME after being ‘harassed and stalked’

A transgender Twitch star claimed she has been forced to move out of her home after being ‘harassed and stalked’ by people online – who allegedly sent a threat to local politicians under her name, which resulted in her being arrested at gunpoint.

Clara Sorrenti, who goes by the name Keffals online, 28, said a SWAT team stormed her home in London, Ontario, on August 5, after someone pretending to be her sent alarming messages to Canada officials claiming she was going to commit ‘mass violence.’

She claimed that someone ‘stole her identity and used it to weaponize the emergency response team of the London police service to terrify her at best, and kill her at worst.’ 

She was brought into custody and detained for more than 10 hours but later released after being cleared of all wrongdoing – but was left terrified for her safety and decided to leave her house and move into a hotel instead.

However, after sharing a snap to let her followers know that she was safe, the social media star said online trolls figured out where she was staying from the photo – which showed her cat lying on the bed – and started sending unwanted gifts to her room.

Keffals posted an explosive YouTube video detailing the incidents on Thursday, explaining that she is now ‘in hiding’ and living in ‘constant fear.’

She explained in the 10-minute long video, which was taken in front of a green screen so that her ‘stalkers’ couldn’t ‘match the furniture in the background’ and figure out where she’s residing now, that users on an online forum known as Kiwi Farms had figured out where she lived and posted the address online.

Kiwi Farms is described as a ‘community dedicated to discussing eccentric people who voluntarily make fools of themselves’ and a place to ‘explore abnormal psychology and the minds of Internet crazies.’ 

‘Kiwi Farms is an online community of stalkers that torment and harass their victims so intensely,’ she said in the YouTube video.

‘The users had narrowed down my address to one in London, Ontario, and one in Toronto, Ontario. 

‘The police sent SWAT teams to the addresses in both of those cities because emails in my name were sent to local politicians, making threats of committing mass violence.’

While one of the addresses was her home, the other was the residence of an ‘elderly Italian man’ who shares her last name.

‘He had nothing to do with this. Innocent people are being hurt in an attempt to hurt me,’ she continued.

‘I am scared that things are going to escalate into future violence against me.’ 

On top of being well known for sharing videos of herself streaming video games, Keffals is also a political activist who ran for the Ontario general election in 2018 and the Canadian federal election in 2019 under the Communist Party of Canada – both of which she lost.

The Washington Post described her as ‘one of the most popular openly trans streamers on Twitch,’ where she has more than 45,000 subscribers. 

‘She is part of a new class of stars who have abandoned the platform’s traditional game-stream format to talk about news and politics,’ the outlet wrote. 

After the swatting incident on August 5, Keffals explained on YouTube that she decided to check into a local hotel.

But after sharing a photo of her feline cuddled up on the hotel bed online, she said the ‘people who were harassing her spent hours cross-referencing the bedsheets with other local hotels until they found a match.’

‘In the morning afterwards, five different pizza companies sent pizzas to my hotel room under my name,’ she explained.

‘Obviously, the pizzas aren’t the problem, it’s the threat that they make. They know where I [am staying], and they’re willing to act on it in the real world.’

She said she ‘promptly checked out,’ and she is now staying at an AirBnb, which she’s renting through a third party, and using a VPN so that no one can trace her. 

‘I’ve essentially had to go into hiding for my own safety,’ she explained. ‘I do not want to live in constant fear of being located and having threats escalate against me, putting my life at risk, as well as the lives of people I care about.’ 

In the YouTube video, Keffals revealed that the police are ‘now investigating what happened as criminal harassment’ and are ‘monitoring her threats closely.’

She also said she hired a lawyer and is currently ‘going over the possible legal routes she can take to seek justice for herself.’ 

She asked her viewers to ‘spread the word’ by sharing her video, and encouraged people to donate to her GoFundMe page, which will help pay for legal funds. 

‘We can only fight back if we make this both a national and international discussion,’ she continued.

‘Seeking justice for myself and others will be a massive, lengthy, and costly undertaking.

‘I never plan to back down, I am never going to go away. I am going to continue fighting.

‘If they really want to stop me, they better manipulate the police into pulling the trigger because I am going nowhere.’

She added that seeing the online support has made her feel ‘significantly less alone during one of the most stressful periods of her entire life.’

She concluded with a message to the creator of the ‘heinous’ website Kiwi Farms, Joshua Moon.

She said: ‘Joshua, the legacy you are going to leave behind in this world is one or creating and offering a platform that for nearly a decade has tormented countless people.’

In 2013, it was reported that video game developer Chloe Sagal committed suicide after receiving a lot of harassment from Kiwi Farms members.

Multiple other people have also allegedly taken their lives at the hands of the platform, including a Canadian woman named Julie Terryberry and a Japanese software developer known as Near.