The Canadian political activist ran as a Libertarian Party candidate in Canada's federal election in 2015 and rose in popularity with her edgy on-site reporting for The Rebel Media. She left the company in 2017 to focus primarily on independent work.

Southern was deplatformed from Patreon in 2017 for reporting on NGOs and their illegal trafficking of migrants into Europe through the Mediterranean. Patreon claimed Southern was putting migrants at risk, but as Breitbart News reported, migrant sea deaths have since plunged. Southern also forced the pro-migrant advocacy NGO Advocates Abroad to shut down all social media accounts after catching its executive director, Ariel Ricker, admitting to "coaching" migrants to lie in their asylum claims.