Kick, a live streaming platform that prides itself on having looser moderation policies than its competitor Twitch, is revisiting those policies after a popular streamer seemingly paid a sex worker to come to a hotel room, where she was briefly prevented from leaving, all while Kick’s CEO was commenting and laughing about it in that stream’s chat.
The incident took place during a live stream by Paul Denino, known online as Ice Poseidon, an IRL live streamer who courts controversy and who has been banned multiple times by Twitch and YouTube. Like many other streamers who were banned by bigger platforms, Denino is currently streaming on Kick. In recent weeks he has streamed his travels across Australia with other online misfits. Denino, who was the subject of a New Yorker profile, often gets in trouble while streaming because he’s filming in public, getting in fights, and getting swatted, but his stream took a dark turn last week when he paid a woman, seemingly a professional sex worker, to come to his hotel room.