Hogwarts Legacy: Controversy Deepens As Tracking Website Disappears

As with anything connected with J. K. Rowling, the release of Hogwarts Legacy brought up a lot of controversies. This time, a Twitch streaming couple known as Girlfriend Reviews was embroiled in the mess.

The Backlash from Twitch Viewers

The streaming platform, Twitch ran ads to promote the game, which incited a massive wave of backlash from its audience, with the majority calling for a strict boycott of the game. Despite the game’s success with critics, many Twitch users have been associating the game with transphobia.

Consequently, have violently opposed it, even going as far as to bully and harass people reviewing or talking about it.

The backlash is the consequence of several comments that could be deemed as transphobic made by Rowling on Twitter in the last few years. Consequently, the LGBTQ community has taken powerful offense against her, even going so far as to boycott anything related to the Harry Potter universe.

That includes the movie series Fantastic Beasts too, the book series, and now, finally, the game Hogwarts Legacy.

Girlfriend Reviews Stopped the Stream in Tears

Recently, Girlfriend Reviews, a couple on Twitch that review games together, came under fire for trying out Hogwarts Legacy on stream. Disturbed by the influx of bullies in their stream, the couple changed the settings to allow only subscribers to comment in the chat box.

However, viewers even began purchasing the subscription with the sole intention of insulting the couple.

Shortly after, the chat started to viciously attack the couple, calling them bigots and transphobic, which, unsurprisingly, got to their heads.

At one point, Shelby, the girlfriend, got so upset that she had to go off-screen while holding back tears. Matt, her boyfriend, wasn’t doing much better either, having to face the cruel words of the chat, and eventually, the couple found themselves compelled to stop streaming.

Even though Girlfriend Reviews had posted earlier on Twitter that they would raise funds for an LGBTQ Charity known as the Trevor Project during the stream, the chat did not seem to care.

Anti-Hogwarts Legacy Website Disappears

The internet’s penchant for extreme steps and harassment made this a terrible mess. Fired by the backlash from the viewers, a website developer created a website to track streamers’ activity. This website would let people identify which streamers had accessed ‘that wizard game,’ making it even easier for people obsessively boycotting the game to target and harass even more streamers.

The URL havetheystreamedthatwizardgame.com was available for viewers. Users could enter a streamer’s name and find out whether they had streamed Hogwarts Legacy on Twitch.

Surprisingly, the site was only active for less than a day, after which it was suspended. People can no longer use the website to target streamers playing the game on Twitch. Instead, the screen displays the message, “This service has been suspended by its owner.”. The website developer, Sam Gibbs, has not given any statements about what happened and why he shut it down after less than 24 hours.