Charlotte Fang
Charlotte Fang is the Co-founder of the Milady Maker NFT collection. In May 2022, Charlotte Fang stepped down as CEO of Milady after doxxing themself as the person behind the controversial 'Miya'.[1][2][3]
Overview
Charlotte Fang also referred to as Charlie, is the CEO of Remilia Corporation, the online collective behind the Milady Maker NFT project. [2]
Milady Maker is a collection of 10,000 generative neochibi-style profile pictures (pfp) NFTs inspired by the street-style tribes of Y2K Japan and it was launched in August 2021. Initially, the idea for Milady Maker was to give holders access to a “highly customized Minecraft server”. The Milady NFT project soon expanded its ecosystem to involve NFT banners, mixtapes, VRtube, a bootleg merch store, and more. [2][4]
Miya Controversy
On May 23, 2022, DefiLlama analyst 0xngmi made allegations in a thread[5] that Milady co-founder, Charlotte Fang, was “Miya” – a pseudonymous online entity that allegedly spread hatred against Blacks, homosexuals, and Jews. [5]
0xngmi also revealed another one of Fang’s older accounts with the username, Sonya. Besides posting similar content to Miya, Sonya reportedly managed a “harem of e-girls.” In a group chat where minors were encouraged into eating disorders and self-harm, one post contained abusive rules these girls followed. [5][6]
Additionally, it was alleged that Charlotte/Miya/Sonya was supposedly part of a suicide movement called Systemspace[7]. The community urged members to commit suicide, plying them with promises that they would gain access to “paradise” upon death. 0xngmi alleged that five years back, a 17-year-old in Canada killed himself due to the influence of this cult.[5][6]
Charlotte Fang's Response
Fang initially attempted to deny the allegations; however, they self-doxxed and confessed to running the Miya account. [8]
"OK, full disclosure: I was Miya. And its toxic baggage that’s hurting Milady community & poisoning the vibe. I apologize about trying to hide the past account—Miya has nothing to do with Milady Maker & should stay that way so I’ll be stepping down from the team from here."
Fang admitted to making the controversial posts calling them Miya’s “toxic baggage.” [6]
To stop the scandal from reflecting on Milady, Charlie resigned as CEO of the NFT project on May 21, 2022, and made a public apology. The former executive stated that Miya’s content was unrelated to their actual views and the Milady NFT project. [6]
Milady Maker's Response
On November 17, 2022, a Milady Maker community member published an article[9] debunking allegations against Milady Maker lead Charlotte Fang and their team.
"These allegations were made on hearsay without actual evidence, by a co-founder of Milady Maker’s largest rival in an attempt to cancel Milady and crash its price. - debunking article[9]
The article was prompted as a result of "old allegations uncritically cited by journalists who jumped on the initial drama and never corrected their reporting."
In the article, it was stated that Miya was a satirical performance art with evidence that the project was well understood and appreciated as performative in its time and in retrospect[10][11]. It was also stated that Miya was collaboratively written and the Miya project was well-noted for its practice of post-authorship, sharing unattributed and collaboratively produced (or outright stolen) content, as described by Charlotte Fang. Lastly, it was stated that Miya was an ‘open secret’ in the Milady community.
"it was a widely known open secret that Charlotte was previously leading the Miya project, many of the fans of which made up the initial Milady community" - debunking article[9]
As regards the allegations of grooming of underage women in the space, the article stated that "no victim has ever been identified" and that none of the identified women in the group chat were underage.
"These women were never approached for their side, but after being subject to exposure and harassment after being presented as victims, each of them have spoken out clearly stating nothing shady had happened and refuting the suggestion they have victimized." - debunking article[9]
The article also addressed the allegations by 0xngmi which alleged that Charlotte Fang previously ran a “suicide cult”, SystemSpace.
"The claim Charlotte founded SystemSpace, had any serious involvement in it, or had any involvement in any individual’s suicide is made with no evidence"
It was stated that SystemSpace was a fairly well-known ARG community inspired by the anime Serial Experiments Lain and the Matrix film series and it was founded and run by a Dutch teenager as an imageboard and Discord server for users creatively participating in the fictional lore. [9]
"One of the members of the 10,000+ member Discord server committed suicide at some point, which 0xngmi used to frame it as a suicide cult."
It was also pointed out that Charlotte Fang's involvement in SystemSpace was minimal.
"Charlotte was only ever in the community for those few months, which happened more than a year before the apparent suicide took place. This has been confirmed by SystemSpace community members who were present at the time. There is also no speculation Charlotte was in any way involved with the team behind SystemSpace."
Finally, the article included an update on nearly all the initial accusers who have retracted their allegations following the release of the article.
"It’s safe to say Milady has beat the allegations" - debunking article[9]