YouTuber Quackity has responded to accusations from multiple former moderators on his private Minecraft server, named QSMP. Moderators allege that they were underpaid and overworked.
According to claims online, QSMP had multiple unpaid moderators working behind the scenes to run the server. Their stories quickly exploded on social media, with the QSMP trending on Twitter with over 75,000 posts on March 4.
Quackity is a streamer with nearly 20 million followers across YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch. He appeared on stream on Sunday night, saying that “volunteers were not being paid and were spending too many hours on activities.” He said he will “perform a deep investigation” to see what is happening.
“I wanna make one thing clear, everybody involved in Quackity Studios will be paid,” Quackity said. “And if at any point my funds are not sufficient enough to pay workers or maintain the project, then the QSMP cannot continue.”
Member of the QSMP and popular Minecraft creator Tubbo said on a March 4 stream that the server would “shut for the next few days.” The Quackity Studios Twitter account confirmed it the same day.
But how did we get here? And what exactly are the allegations against Quackity’s SMP?
Quackity started as a creator at only 13 years old in 2013. He has spent most of the past decade making edgy gaming videos. But in 2020, he was invited to take part in a private survival multiplayer Minecraft server (SMP) of Dream, who was one of the largest creators of that year. According to Socialblade, Quackity went from one million Twitch viewers a month in January 2020 to 14 million by February 2021.
In March 2023, Quackity launched the QSMP, his own private Minecraft server. However, unlike other servers, this server would be multi-lingual. A computer program would translate messages said in the game into multiple languages in real time.
Creators from non-English speaking countries, like France and Brazil, were able to reach entirely new audiences. But the automated translation program could only do so much. So the server also needed bilingual moderators to help run things behind the scenes.
On Feb. 29, 22-year-old French moderator Léa started to share her experience working on the QSMP. According to tweets written in French, she started as a volunteer. Then, she became an employee making roughly $183 dollars a month. …
