I swear, the longer the Dandy's World controversy goes on, the more it feels like watching three five year olds with access to lawsuits and lawyers at recess fighting over a swing.
Before we get started, I would like to define some "fancy legal words" to help children, teens, and even adults understand the situation better. I will try to underline very important information in these definitions, but I recommend you read all of it:Â
-NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement): A contract that promises not to share a companyâs âsecretsâ/disclosed information. There ARE regulations on what can go in an NDA, which I will get into later. (IMPORTANT DETAIL: even after being fired/quitting, an NDA can last for years, usually ~5.) All Blushcrunch workers signed an NDA before working for Qwel. This is a VERY important detail.
-C&D (Cease and Desist): A letter from a lawyer warning someone to stop what theyâre doing, or legal action will be taken; often sent when someone breaks an NDA, infringes on copyright, or breaches a contract.
-SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation): I donât think Iâll talk about it much in this rant, but it was mentioned by Joji, and I think people should know what that means. A SLAPP suit is a lawsuit by a powerful person, business, or owner purely to intimidate, bankrupt, and silence someone who is calling them out.Â
What does this mean in this situation? It means Joji and Void are concerned that Qwel might try to launch a lawsuit against them to force their silence and drain them financially. However, an important technical distinction to make is that a C&D itself is NOT a SLAPP suit. What Joji likely meant is theyâre worried the C&D is a scare tactic meant to force silence so that they donât get themselves into an actual SLAPP lawsuit. Another distinction we as a fandom need to keep in mind: we shouldn't label this a future/threateend SLAPP suit just yet. We don't have the full details on why the C&D was issued. It could be in response to a genuine, major breach of an NDA, or it could be a minor issue where Qwel is just being petty. We don't know the full truth yet, so we shouldn't claim either scenario as absolute fact.
Thatâs all for definitions! In this rant, Iâm going to assume that youâve read and understood ALL of these terms, because I am not going to pause to re-explain what an NDA is every single time it comes up. I cannot stress enough how important these definitions are!! That said, if you still have questions about any of these terms, feel free to ask me in the comments! Before wrapping up, I want to clarify my personal stance on the overall situation.
Right now, I consider myself completely neutral. Neither side is acting mature, both are severely lacking evidence, and Iâve seen a lot of unprofessional behavior all around. The point of this whole rant is to share my opinion on the controversy, and clear up misinformation in this community. Cough, coughâTikTok. Believing either party blindly is a terrible idea, so Iâm standing in the middle until there's enough concrete proof to actually show who is in the wrong.
That being said, I know I'll probably get accused of taking Qwel's side, so let me be crystal clear: I do not support Qwel. Even setting this drama aside, I don't like her. She has consistently shown that she is immature and nowhere near ready to handle such a massive role. Personally, I hope she at the very least takes a hiatus to work on herselfâif she doesn't step down as Blushcrunch CEO and founder permanently.
Lastly, I haven't financially supported the game in any way since this controversy broke, and I strongly recommend you do the same.
Now, onto the first piece of misinformation Iâve foundâQwel is suing the victims. FALSE!Â
As mentioned in the definitions above, all BSC members signed a NDA before becoming an official member. In Joji/Voidâs documents, one of the agreements was broken, which resulted in Qwel sending a C&D to get the information removed. This is NOT a lawsuit. Could it become one? Yes, but as of right now, she is not actively suing them. This is going to be REAL confusing if you didnât read the definitions.Â
Another claim Iâve heard is that the C&D was sent because of the victims speaking out and the doc as a whole. Once again, FALSE!!Â
In many places, an NDA cannot legally prevent someone from reporting certain forms of misconduct or exercising protected rights. The law protects your right to speak out. While thereâs no âNDAÂ policeâ that checks an NDA before it is approved, it is completely free to report an illegal NDA. What most likely (NOT CONFIRMED, JUST LIKELY!!) happened was that something they said or showed in the doc was against their NDA, so Qwel sent the C&D to make them remove the information? Now, do we know WHAT the violation is? No. Joji and Void have not said anything about the C&D. While I think showing the C&D censored would be the best move, I understand that they are afraid to get a lawsuit. We donât know if Qwel just wrote the C&D over a very minor breach to the NDA to scare the victims, as mentioned in the SLAPP suit definition (yeah you didnât read, that did you? đ/j), but it couldâve genuinely been a major breach too, and Qwel couldâve just been taking the appropriate action. We donât know yet, which is why we shouldnât say either is true.
The last claim Iâve heard is that the document pointing out the flaws in Jojiâs document was written by a group of scammers and should not be trusted. FALSE!!Â
If you donât know, about a week ago, a Russian Dandyâs World fan made a document to show flaws in Jojiâs document. From what Iâve heard, they were apparently also sending some sort of link or something?? I donât know, the post got taken down. Void read the doc, and they ended up throwing out the scammer accusations, leading to the Russian fan taking their document down. Later, someone informed them that in Russia, they could not buy robux directly, so they had to use third party links. Void apologized and took the post down. (Yes, I do have direct proof of Void apologizing and being informed. I will not put it in this document just because I donât want to ruin the formatting, but I will dm it.) I think I will bring this up again later, because I personally think Joji and Void dealt with this VERY unprofessionally.
Moving from explaining misinformation from a more neutral standpoint, I would like to share my personal opinions on this situation and how both sides have handled it. Personally, I think this situation was handled poorly. Serious accusations like âscammerâ can heavily damage someoneâs reputationâmore research should have been done before making that claim publicly. Even if Void had good intentions, the accusation spread much faster than the correction. Given the seriousness of the situation, I think more caution should have been taken before making such a serious accusation publiclyThis is something that Iâve noticed throughout this situation from multiple people involvedâserious claims being made with limited publicly available evidence
I also believe it was completely inappropriate to harass the creator of the document for âspreading incorrect informationâ instead of explaining WHY itâs incorrect. Calling someone a scammer to try to discredit their criticisms (which in my personal opinion, were valid questions about some of the claims Void and Joji made) only makes you look bad. Now before someone yells at me saying âohhh youâre only criticizing the victims!!â Qwel hasnât publicly addressed much of anything yet, other than her statement, which I do plan to criticize. Please, have some patience with me.
Another thing Iâd like to talk about is Qwel being doxxed. If youâre not aware, Nivouty recently made a video asking Void and Joji some questions about the controversy. In one of the responses, a piece of evidence had Qwelâs nickname, which I will not say here, in it. Obviously, Nivouty asked if that was Qwelâs real name. Joji responded no, that it was a shortened version of her full name. After that, Void went on to tell Nivouty how to find personal information such as Qwelâs full first and surname, her address, etc. I would advise you to NOT go find the information, but if you do, PLEASE DO NOT HARASS HER!!
Thatâs part of what makes this situation so bad. Theyâre telling a community, full of majority teenagers and tweens, how to find the address of someone who is already being heavily harassed due to their allegations. Kids are naturally curious, theyâre obviously going to check and spread it, whether they have malicious intent or not. I am not saying Qwelâs allegations arenât true, but if they are, she still doesnât deserve to have her address leaked. That can put her, her family, and her future in serious danger.
Along with that, this puts the victims in a terrible situation. That C&D could now potentially become part of a separate legal issue. Doxxing doesnât break the NDA; it can break the law. The C&D was sent over a contract issue, while this is a safety and privacy issue. I really cannot stress how terrible of a decision this was.
This is not at all an accusation, but I do think itâs ironic that Void and Joji wonât show the C&D censored in fear that it could violate the NDA againâwhich could help clear up whether they genuinely violated a major part of the NDA, or whether Qwel is using the situation to pressure themâbut they were willing to share her personal information. Sure, Dandyâs World makes a lot of money, but it is still a Roblox game. A lawsuit costs a lot of money. In my opinion, it seems much more likely that Qwel would pursue legal action over a genuine safety/privacy issue rather than a smaller NDA dispute, and that type of claim could potentially carry more weight.
I think this is what really made me think, âyup, Iâm neutral.â What Qwel allegedly did is fucked up, and I do not support it, but doxxing is not much better. I donât see why we should risk supporting either side, when we can just support neitherâbut this is just my opinion. If you support the victims, thatâs okay; just make sure to remember to stay educated. If youâre a complete Qwel or Rox supporter (heavy on Rox) please block me.
And finally, I would like to talk about Qwelâs statement, because I think there are some things to consider. First of all, did I think it was good? No. I noticed that the statement seemed very guilt trippyâlike being groomed by Rox excuses all her other alleged (and known) actions. Obviously, Iâm sorry she was groomed, but she still needs to take accountability. She never really apologized about taking so long to fire Roxâshe just explained why. I wish she would admitted more clearly what she did wrong, and how sheâll change in the future, so it looks more like sheâs taking accountability instead of playing victim herself. It is very much possible to realize she was hurt and sympathize with her, while also holding her accountable for being immature.Â
At the same time, we have to remember that she likely canât say much. Victims, Qwel herself, and Joey have stated that she canât say EVERYTHING she may want to yet. Hopefully, weâll get the information and apology we want in the future.Â
Overall, this post is meant to show that this situation is much more complicated than the internet is treating it. People need to stop blindly defending one side, spreading misinformation, or making serious claims without enough evidence. Stop throwing around terms like NDA, C&D, and SLAPP as if they automatically mean someone is trying to silence another person. While that can be part of the situation (and I personally would not be surprised if that were the case), that is not the only possibility.
People who have been hurt can still make mistakes, spread misinformation, or handle situations poorly. The important thing is to separate facts from assumptions, stay informed, and avoid treating speculation as truth.
Anyways, thatâs going to be all for this post. Iâm tired, babes, so I hope yall liked this. đ„čđ«°Iâm also not proof reading this, so ignore any grammar mistakes. đ«¶
