In a needless turn of events, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins threatens fellow streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys with defamation charges. Welcome to 2022, dear ones. From here it gets wild.
It all started on Jan. 12 when popular YouTuber Jidion “JiDion” Adams, for reasons unclear, flooded Pokimane’s Twitch channel in a so-called hate raid. It sucked, especially since JiDion told his followers to spam “L+-Ratio,” which means loss and has more negative than positive reactions (i.e., a bad ratio), into Pokimane’s chat to denigrate them. The hate attack prompted Pokimane to finish their 12 hours Appreciation electricity, and Twitter initially banned JiDion for 14 days before escalating to a permaban.
Continue reading: Pokimane receives first ban, but only temporarily
Pokemon joined Twitch on January 17th to discuss the incident and shared several edited clips from Ninja’s streams where he gave his two cents on the situation. in footage, Ninja too specifically said he texted his Twitch rep to see what could be done about JiDion’s permaban to help him. but said there was nothing he could do. Despite clips Ninja later denied texting his Twitch contact in a private message to Pokimane and deleted the video, which was available after the live stream ended. But Pokimane saved clips that proved Ninja actually said he signed up for JiDion.
In the clip above, Pokimane holds up her phone and shows what appears to be a Twitter DM from Ninja. Not only does he swear on his dead grandfather’s life that he “didn’t write [his] Twitch rep,” but Ninja also vaguely threatens Pokimane, saying she’s “making a big mistake.” Whatever that means. Funny, because that directly contradicts what he says in his own clips.
The situation then goes from zero to 100 in no time. In one Screenshot of Pokimane posted, apparently Ninja’s manager and wife Jessica Blevins DMed the streamer on Twitter and said the two were “consider anything that is character libel at this point” and involve their legal department. Blevins told Pokimane that Ninja only said he texted his Twitch rep to “stop harassing JiDion’s viewers on his chat,” stating that they “explained everything” to her. Ultimately, Blevins claimed that Pokimane was “actively harassing” Ninja. It’s unclear if legal action will be taken, but Blevins said the two “take this very seriously,” so Ninja vs. Pokimane could be a real thing in court. Lets see what happens.
igamesnews has reached out to JiDion, Ninja, Pokimane, and Twitch and will update the story if any of them respond.
For his part, JiDion, best known for his prank videos on YouTube, uploaded a video to Twitter on January 16th He admitted he “deserved to get banned” for violating Twitch’s Terms of Service. But he also pleaded for fairness in the streaming giant’s handling of these matters, noting that a permaban is too strict for a first-time offender, according to JiDion.
“Obviously what I did is wrong,” JiDion said, “but how am I supposed to do better next time if I can’t get a next time?”
He has since rallied his followers around the #twitchfreejidion campaign to unblock his channel. JiDion also apologized to Pokimane on Twitter, saying he’s “dropping it” — whatever that means — and will be streaming on YouTube next week.
Many prominent streamers including Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang and Aileena “Leena” Xu, tweeted their support for Pokimane to defend themselves against this harassment. But let’s be honest: this predicament is completely unnecessary. If you look at a quick summary of the facts – JiDion does hateful Pokimane, JiDion gets permanently banned, JiDion then starts a campaign to get the perpetual ban reversed – Ninja had no reason to get involved. That he chose to do so voluntarily and then purposely said he would text his Twitch rep to do something about it puts him squarely in the crossfire. Now he and his manager want to claim defamation of character as Ninja verbatim said he texted his rep? Shit doesn’t make sense.
Continue reading: Twitch deleted over 15 million hate raid bots last year
Pokimane wasn’t a Twitch angel either, like it was just earlier this month received a quick 48-hour ban to stream Avatar: The Last Airbender. This has been dubbed “TV Meta” on the platform where streamers watch and react to movies and TV during the live stream. Disguised toast was also banned for watching “hours and hours”. death notice this month, although SteamerBans Reports the suspension was lifted after two days. Although no copyright claims appear to have been made yet, the practice is legally risky.
This entire issue brings together two outstanding issues for Twitch as it grapples with both the new TV meta and ongoing hate attacks.
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