Pewdiepie, the top youtuber, just put out a video asking his fans not to show up at his house. He says he was speaking on behalf on a lot of youtubers. I've recently seen reports and tweets by many youtubers that fans have been showing up at their houses uninvited.
Kotaku did an article on the video which turned into a debate in the comments on whether people famous on youtube should have an expectation of privacy.
Most people can't imagine becoming a top youtuber or even being well-known on the internet. They don't think it applies to them. Let's say that a post on a small website goes viral and gets a lot of attention. Should that person expect their privacy to be respected?
More generally, should there be an expectation of privacy for people who do activities on the internet that become popular?
Being famous is the opposite of having privacy. If being famous (I don't know what other value being a 'youtuber' could possibly bring) is your chosen method of making your way in this world, you have no expectation of a private life. Conversely, no fan should stalk/be a dick to someone whose content they enjoy. That's a good way to get them to stop making that content.
The top youtubers that I've watched talk about this all the time. The value to them is being able to share something they love with people who share the love of the same thing. Most of their friends come from their fan base. They also get a lot of feedback from the people in comments and learn from them. It's a two-way interaction. Sharing something like gaming takes a video platform like youtube to show most effectively how they're playing the game. I've seen the criticism somewhere about youtube that they all watch each other's stuff. I don't see that as a criticism. For many, that's the point of youtube. That's like criticizing Hubski for people reading each other's posts. For many, it's an interactive community where people are talking to each other. You have to be a registered user to comment, so all the commenters are also registered potential content creators on youtube. Secondarily, youtubers want to be able to make a living from their efforts so they can continue doing more of the video stuff. Pewdiepie was working at a hot dog stand to continue posting his videos. He says he didn't really expect that he would make a lot of money from it. At the time he started, it wasn't easy to make a living from doing that. Pewdiepie has said that he has never sought fame and doesn't care for it. He could live in Los Angeles for the increased money making opportunities but he chooses to stay away from there because in LA, he's seen more as "famous". Fame is really a by-product of what he's done over the years. He really couldn't have foreseen it because when he started, youtube wasn't big enough to create this many followers. For some people, I think the value of youtube is the same as the value of posting on a forum like Hubski. It's people sharing what they like with like-minded people. Just as a hypothetical, if people were sharing what they liked on Hubski, then it was bought out by Google, turned into a revenue sharing platform and then exploded in popularity, would the people who are posting here now and got famous through that process be entitled to privacy? If some had made enough money to rely on that income as a job, should they be required to find another job and quit posting to reclaim their privacy?If being famous (I don't know what other value being a 'youtuber' could possibly bring) is your chosen method of making your way in this world, you have no expectation of a private life.
WIth great power comes great responsibility. Yao Ming has used his fame to help reduce the demand for shark fin soup in China, and that caused a substantial decrease in the number of sharks killed each year purely for their fins Celebrity used responsibly. Then comes the example of basically every other famous person that exists.
Alright. PewDiePie helped raise a million dollars for various charities, which may or may not include his "Charity: Water" campaign raising more than $440k. I don't see how does it relate to privacy concerns for famous people. You can't look at extraordinary examples and say "Oh, this is what everyone whose name is on air should do!". We're all human beings. Some of us can do great things. Most of us are only capable of good ones.
Fame always seems to come with a certain amount of privacy expense. Whether that's youtube/internet fame, movies/television fame, political fame... etc. But in my opinion, regardless of who you are and how famous you are - there are certainly still lines that SHOULDN'T be crossed. My opinion is that anyone showing up invited at anyone's house and unwelcomingly invading someone's personal and private space is in the wrong. Well known or not, I think every person has the right to draw a line and delineate what they desire to be their publicly accessible self and their private self. Just because I put certain pieces of myself out there for others to see and scrutinize as they wish, does not mean I am obligated to put any other pieces of myself out there if I do not wish. Famous people don't 'owe' anything to any fan or critic. They are still a person, just like anyone else, and I think yes, they absolutely should expect a certain amount of privacy and respect regarding that. I personally don't get at all the obsessed fanatical fans that will go absolutely bat shit crazy to see or meet a well known individual. It boggles my mind. Sure, there are authors and musicians and even actors /actresses, etc., that I would love to meet and have a beer and a chat with because I think they seem to be an interesting person. But would I got to any sort of extreme length to get that opportunity or jump up and down and cry at the site of them? Absofuckinglutely not. That behaviour is just bizarre to me. Foreign to me. Showing up uninvited to a celebrity's house seems, extreme, to me. I wouldn't want someone doing that to me regardless of how famous I was. I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation of privacy, regardless of your status. And I mean really.. wouldn't you think someone would have better things to do with their time than obsess over celebrities? This is an area I just don't understand about a large portion of my fellow humans. But that's not, unfortunately, how many other people seem to see it. They feel it's their absolute right to know anything and everything they want about a person, simply because they are famous or well known. I disagree with that.
I know I see the world a lot more straightforward, but - why wouldn't you? You don't come to random strangers and expect them to act as if they care about you, let alone expect that they should (beyond general human decency, that is). Why are famous people any different? Now, I know what might be said about famous people. They're idolized, idealized - to the point where them acting like a normal human being is considered odd. You don't ever think that Bruce Willis has to shit sometimes, or that Rihanna has to wax her pubic hair - and yet, they do. They, too, have to have friends, eat, sleep, be passionate about something; sometimes cry, laugh, fall ill or be in a better mood than usual. YouTubers have a different sort of fame. Unlike the film stars or pop singers, they're relatable; they're "our guys" who just happened to have made it to the top. We want to get to know them both because they're relatable and because they're famous. When Markiplier said that he really likes the Russian portion of his fandom and even entertains a thought of coming to Russia, I immediately thought "Oh, man! Wouldn't that be cool to meet him and show him the place? We would spend some time together, and that would be awesome!". He's a cool guy... who just happened to be extremely popular (14 million subscribers are nothing to joke about). But here's the thing. What you, as a devoted fan, don't realize is that a) you're not the only one like that, b) the person you quietly worship is just a regular person (though with the discipline and the passion like few else display), c) you're creepy when you do what PewDiePie talks about. For you, a devoted fan, what you do is just show your idol your admiration, let them know that you like them very much. In itself, it's admirable to not hold such a level of appreciation back. However, when it comes to invasion of privacy, what you do is not okay. Spying on next-door folks isn't - why should it be different for someone famous?