The Strange Proximity to Online Controversy and Real-Life Betrayal

So I just wanted to share a very strange occurrence that I've been slowly watching devolve that I can do nothing about. I'm not going to give specifics because it's relatively big? I suppose? If you like... a certain genre of Youtuber? Though I won't kid myself in saying nobody could piece it together. You probably could if you tried, though it'd be nice if you didn't try to weaponize this somehow. That's why I'm posting it on SpaceHey, and not like, Twitter.

Anyway, for years I've been very good friends with a person we'll call... Daisy. Long distance, but we've been pretty close, we were in a bit of a relationship/situationship for a bit, many years ago, but for many more years they've been a good friend I care about. Daisy has this other friend, Orchid, that I know, have chatted with on occasion, but otherwise don't super keep up with. Orchid helps Daisy with some of the art stuff they do. I almost met Orchid IRL one time when I was in the state they lived in. Daisy dated Orchid at a point too, and I helped Daisy recover when they broke up. (Some of the details around the breakup did make me a little weary of Orchid, but that was years ago and they stayed friends, so I had no reason not to trust Orchid!)

Anyway, back to present day, recently Orchid posted something accusing another person, a content creator they dated, of SA. Like, of the "R" variety. I was horrified, especially as someone who was SA'd, as someone who has supported victims of SA. I messaged them saying how sorry I was that happened; Daisy posted publicly in support of them, I made sure Daisy was doing OK too. Daisy seemed to have been told prior about some of this, and had interacted with the creator in question and didn't have positive experiences. So case closed, right? What a terrible thing to happen to a friend of a friend!

...Well. The creator posted a reply. And...it was pretty damning. (From what I've heard. It was like 90 minutes and I've been busy.) Orchid went silent. Publicly and privately. Daisy hasn't been able to reach them. Daisy had to publicly apologize, and doesn't know what to believe anymore. A friend for years, and they don't know if they can believe Orchid anymore. And Orchid isn't responding to clarify anything.

It's shocking! Of course everyone in the wider online space is just defending the big content creator and being feral over the whole thing, saying anyone who supported Orchid is evil, cruel, stupid. Just wanted to hate on the creator. But my thinking was... this is a mutual friend! I have no reason to doubt Orchid! And Daisy didn't either! It was a heartbreaking situation that someone who has helped Daisy, someone who they loved, went through. They had no history of lying like this!

It's just a strange position to be in, I am nowhere close enough to want to say anything publicly in the spaces this controversy is occurring, but humanity is a web of interpersonal connections and it all just has been such a shock. I keep seeing videos and tweets about it that all just read like it's... the drama of the day. The people who post these things will forget about it tomorrow. It's weird.

Shockingly, things are often more complicated than the 280 characters on Twitter make it seem!