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Valkyrae and the RFLCT controversy had the internet hooked on to it towards the end of October. It was quite a wild ride, starting with Valkyrae announcing her skincare brand, RFLCT, to the internet, almost canceling her.
Now that the dust has settled around the controversy, it would be good to revisit the entire incident, event by event.
Valkyrae's RFLCT controversy: event by event
Valkyrae announces RFLCT skincare
Valkyrae announced her skincare brand, RFLCT, on October 19. The brand caters to gamers and claims to protect users' skin from the harmful effects of blue light emitted from device screens. The streamer mentioned that she had been closely involved with the project for two years, and was very excited to announce its launch. The products in the skincare line were set to be released in store and on the website on October 25, 2021.
Valkyrae faces backlash due to the claims made by RFLCT
Soon after Valkyrae made the announcement, people started questioning the claims made by RFLCT. No scientific study suggests that the blue light emitted from device screens is very harmful to the skin. Therefore it seemed like RFLCT had essentially created a problem just to provide a solution for the same. Furthermore, the Terms of Service on the website shrugged off all responsibility if the information provided on the website proved inaccurate.
Soon enough, Valkyrae became labeled a scammer for trying to extort money out of her impressionable audience by selling them products that do not do what they claim. People, including actual doctors, shared their views about RFLCT products, and it was proved that the claims made by the brand were not logical.
Valkyrae breaks her silence regarding the RFLCT scam allegations
Valkyrae went live on stream on October 23 to address all the issues people were raising against the claims made by RFLCT. She stated that she had seen the blue light research conducted by RFLCT herself to vouch for the same. However, she was not aware that the studies would not be linked on the official RFLCT website. Furthermore, she mentioned that the studies would never be published on the website since other companies could steal them.
However, more shocking was how Valkyrae went on a rant, speaking about which friends had supported her during the controversy. She went to the extent of name-dropping streamers, which may have led to a rift in her friendship with OfflineTV star, Pokimane.
Mizkif, who was reacting to the livestream on his channel, told the streamer to stop checking Reddit posts about the issue. He advised her to go off-stream for a couple of days and spend time with her friends offline.
Valkyrae was on the verge of being canceled after her livestream
After the livestream, Valkyrae was subjected to the harshest criticism she had ever faced from the internet. People were shaming her for throwing her friends under the bus by namedropping them. It was generally considered a very immature move on Valkyrae's part and elicited different reactions from different streamers. While streamers like Disguised Toast and Pokimane understood where she came from, others like xQc were not so kind.
The streamer was almost on the verge of being canceled after the livestream. However, her fans believed that that would be too harsh a punishment for simply being naive and immature.
Valkyrae tries to remove all association with RFLCT
Amidst all the backlash she was facing due to RFLCT, Valkyrae subtly went ahead and deleted all RFLCT related tweets and posts she had made from her official Twitter account. At this point, even the official page for RFLCT had been silent for quite some time.
Later on, leaked Discord chats between Valkyrae and Ludwig revealed that the streamer was consulting with her legal team to get out of her contract with RFLCT, because she had realized that the brand was a scam.
RFLCT ceases to exist
On October 30, the RFLCT website was taken down, and removed all its products from the market. The official Twitter page for the brand was also removed from the social media site, and the brand ceased to exist.
Whether people who have already purchased products and are yet to receive them will be refunded is yet to be seen, but RFLCT is officially dead now.
The announcement and subsequent death of RFLCT was one of the quickest that the world has ever seen, with a lifespan of just over a week.
