Twitch has just held its massive streamer-focused convention TwitchCon in San Diego over the weekend, and has faced immense scrutiny from fans and creators alike, with several promising to never come back to the event.
What is Twitch without drama?
The massive streaming company held its annual TwitchCon at San Diego’s Convention Centre last weekend, , which saw thousands of content creators and fans across the globe fly over to attend.
On entrance, convention goers would be met with tight security: bag checks, metal detectors, backpacks prohibited, and compulsory wristband scanning. All things that would give the illusion of a secure and reliable security presence at an event that would place creators closest with their most parasocial fans, right? Well, if you’ve been following the headlines over the event, you’d know this wasn’t the case.
Over the weekend, a massive scandal would unfold as Emiru, a YouTube and Twitch streamer, would be assaulted on camera during a meet and greet with fans. In the video, a larger fan would approach Emiru and tightly hold the streamer while trying to kiss her. Security would take seconds to respond before pushing the man off.
Emiru would shortly release a statement afterwards, saying, “I don’t understand how he was able to make it to me in the first place”.
“The woman who is walking me away is my own personal manager, and behind the booth, the only two people who were checking on me and comforting me were her and my friend. None of the TwitchCon staff came to ask what happened or if I was okay,” she wrote in her post.
“I did not feel cared for or protected, even bringing my own security and staff,” she wrote. “I can’t imagine how creators without those options would feel.”
Emiru would also later release a video sharing her thoughts on the matter, revealing that the security who intervened was her own private security, and that Twitch’s own security “did not react and let the guy walk away.”
“I’m obviously shaken up by what happened and it’s not the first time I’ve dealt with something like this, but to tell you honestly, I am a lot more hurt and upset by how Twitch handled it during and after the fact.” She claimed that Twitch’s would only ban the suspect from the platform for 30 days, and it was only after her manager continuously pressed the massive streaming company for a more dire response, that it made it a lifetime ban from Twitch and TwitchCon.
“The safety and security of all those attending TwitchCon is our highest priority,” the company wrote in a statement over the weekend. “The behavior displayed by the individual involved in the incident yesterday involving a high profile streamer was completely unacceptable and deeply upsetting.” Emiru also took issue with Twitch’s framing of its response, claiming that no one from security immediately tracked down the suspect to escort him out of the convention.
Content creators have been on high alert this year and have been urging Twitch to take the safety of conventiongoers seriously.
These calls follow after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the high profile murder of Korean TikToker and livestreamer Yoon Ji-ah was also murdered by a stalker who had allegedly donated roughly $70,000 to her under the user alias “Black Cat”.
With streamers broadcasting their location from a public area stalkers could reach, it’s fair to see why safety would be top-of-mind for most high profile creators.
IRL Streamers harass content creators on the floor
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t just be the Emiru incident that would bring scrutiny to TwitchCon this year.
Multiple convention-goers have shared that they had been approached by various IRL streamers, who had disrupted their experience and went as far as harassing them.
One incident included streamer ‘N3on’ approaching another creator ‘Emerome’ at the event to invite her to an afterparty, sharing that he wanted her there because “she’s so beautiful”. Emerome would laugh it off, saying “I love being objectified” before walking away with her friend, which would prompt N3on to curse them out, yelling “It’s always the fat friend, bro”.
Emerome would reshare the incident on her stream and later admit that she had received death threats from N3on’s community following the incident.
Streamer Jade_Infinite would share that she was approached by another IRL streamer who, when checking their chat, found out that the IRL streamer was approaching women so the chat could rate whether they would have sex with them or not.
Several creators have gone on to call for IRL streaming to be banned from the event, sharing that creators showing up with camera crews to film the event made the event “feel like a black mirror” episode.
Creator Cohh Carnage went as far as to encourage other streamers to boycott the event until IRL streamers were banned from streaming to better facilitate a safer environment and make it easier for creators and fans to interact without worry of being harassed.
In the lead up to TwitchCon, major streamers, including Valkyrae, QTCinderella, Hasan Piker, Disguised Toast, and Yvonnie, publicly announced they would not attend due to safety concerns. Given the negative backlash to this years iteration, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this list grow even more by next year.
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