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YouTube and Twitch content team, Yogscast, has dropped Matthew “Caffcast” Meredith after eight members of Meredith’s moderation team went public with allegations of sexual harassment. Meredith has now been scrubbed from all associated Yogcast sites, and while his YouTube channel remains live – albeit not updated for two weeks – he has seemingly deactivated all of his social media accounts.
The accusations came to light when Discord moderators posted a statement stating Meredith “has been abusing his position as a content creator for at least the last three years to pursue sexual relationships with those he has power and influence over”. It further alleged he “used his position as a point of coercion and control” and as the team had seen “corroborated and proven evidence”, they were all standing down.
The moderation team for a content creator just came out with pretty big news. We cared so much and worked with this person for years, even calling them a friend, it breaks my heart. If anyone needs support or has anything, we are here for you.
Other than that, fuck him pic.twitter.com/75aLrE6kqG
— Jane✨✊🏾 (@JaneDash) July 5, 2019
Since the allegations came to light, eight women have come forward with further allegations, along with reports Meredith would often suggest the mod team hire particular women onto the mod team “even if those women were fairly inactive community members or unsuitable to hold the position”. It’s reported some of these individuals were “predated on further by Caff”.
“We now believe in retrospect that his reasons for suggesting these women were to gain additional access to these members in a closer environment to be able to more easily groom them for his sexual motivations,” the statement added.
“As you know, the Yogscast expects the highest levels of professionalism from its talent and that it is central to the company and its ethos that our fans and community are considered first,” wrote Yogscast CEO Mark ‘Turps’ Turpin in a statement on Reddit (thanks, GI.biz).
“Having reviewed the evidence and carefully considered this situation, we have concluded that Caff’s conduct is a material breach of our talent agreements and code of conduct that results in us terminating his relationship with the Yogscast effective immediately. He is no longer part of the Yogscast collective.”
“We would encourage those of you who see this to make others both in the community and who have once been in the community aware as we do not want him to have any more unsuspecting people to prey upon,” the community team concluded. “We are aware there may be more victims than the eight we have spoken to in the last three days and should you have any additional information or just want support for your experiences we will still be available through Discord or other social media for you to talk to.”
