Recently, a very close friend of mine has been subjected to (what can only be described as) targeted online harassment, and I'm pretty damn mad about it.

Arakasa (https://www.furaffinity.net/user/arakasa/) is one of my closest friends. We've spoken online almost every day for close to twenty years now. We're both into Gundam, we like watching Vinesauce streams, and we like drawing fat girls. We've had fights and falling outs, and we've come out of it stronger friends for it, and I know what a great person he is. He's warm, creative, and tremendously funny.

That's why it makes me so mad to see him hurting so much. I know whoever it is that's been doing this (he has very gracefully chosen to keep the identity of the individual[s] involved a secret when discussing this with me) think they are doing something good, but they're not.

As near as we can tell, these attacks seem to be motivated by concerns over some of the subject matter of a small number of his drawings, and they assume that it means something about him. I disagree.

Arakasa will be putting out a statement himself today. He will explain the situation in his own words, better than I can. What it boils down to is this: One or more persons are digitally stalking him, and speaking behind his back to other creators and artists. Their goal is to get him to blocked, or banned, from platforms like DeviantArt, FurAffinity and Discord, which they have done, while giving Arakasa no notice or any opportunity to defend himself from their accusations or even communicate at all.

I urge everyone who sees this to read his statement here (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/61783688/), especially if they are familiar with Arakasa and his work, and doubly so if they have banned or been told to avoid him, and if they have any questions or comments which they can put forward civilly to communicate with him.

Lastly, I will say that I can understand the thinking of the individuals behind these attacks - It's true that there are many cases where people use their sexuality as justification for some truly, truly heinous things. I also understand that discussing these issues is very tricky - The bar is so low that it's basically somewhere under the floor at this point - but harassing small, harmless creators like Arakasa is not helpful. If anything, it does the opposite. There's a reason people talk about "Divide and conquer" as a strategy. When we fight amongst ourselves, we're not fighting them.

Freaks like us need to stick together, so please join me in sticking by my friend.