In February 2023, a video went viral: Polish streamer Sidneuke ran over a dog while streaming, driving and looking at her cell phone. A clip of the incident went viral on Twitter. The clip shocked and outraged people worldwide. The act had a drastic consequence for the streamer: Twitch banned her forever. But now she has moved to Kick.com. The platform is becoming a safe haven for people who have fallen out of favor on Twitch.
Warning: The clip is not only unpleasant for animal lovers and can cause a queasy feeling. So we don’t embed it directly, just link to it. Nonetheless, it is a distressing subject.
This was the incident that frightened so many:
We reported on the incident on MeinMMO on February 22, 2023.
This was the reaction: The situation outraged people around the world in February 2023, especially on Twitter. The streamer’s behavior was deemed irresponsible.
According to reports, a Polish animal welfare agency opened an investigation against them and wanted to transfer the case to the public prosecutor’s office.
The streaming platform Twitch, on which this took place, has issued a permanent ban on them. Twitch often responds to public outrage with permanent bans, especially on Twitter.
Streamer admits misconduct – but finds criticism hypocritical
The streamer herself said: The streamer later said on Twitter the dog was fine. She is in contact with the owner. She has learned her lesson and will no longer look at her cell phone while driving.
However, according to the streamer, the criticism of her is hypocritical. She said (via twitter):
Top influencers who have never used a phone while driving put pressure on me and spread misinformation. I made a mistake but I got out and took care of it! I didn’t leave the dog to die!
Streamer can simply continue streaming on Kick
What happened next? According to a report by Spanish site 3D Juegos, the streamer initially accepted the consequences of her trade and apologized on Twitter.
However, she’s now bypassing the ban simply by continuing to stream on competing Twitch platform Kick. She has been active there for 18 days and has 142 followers.
DrDisrespect was a celebrity on Twitch – His ban remains a big secret to this day
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Kick becomes sanctuary for banned Twitch streamers and gambling
This is behind it: Kick seems to be establishing itself as a platform for “controversial streamers” who have problems on Twitch and are not allowed to show their content there (anymore):
What is the problem? A problem here is that behavior that is clearly seen as immoral goes without harsh consequences if the streamers in question can just start fresh elsewhere. So that could push the boundaries of what’s acceptable and what’s not.
One advantage is certainly that Twitch loses its monopoly position with strong competition and has to become more transparent. Some decisions are difficult to understand. To this day, no one knows why the streamer DrDisrespect was banned.
However, the fact that the competitor is apparently a rival financed by a casino and apparently has significantly lower moral standards than the American market leader is not exactly a reassuring development.
The main argument for Kick also seems to be quite simple, money:
28-year-old complains in tears that Twitch takes away half of her money – she works so much