It can be tough to make it as a streamer. The space is so saturated and commercialized that even the biggest broadcasters are still constantly trying to get ahead\u2014but even superstar Pokimane has now gone on record turning down any future association with lucrative but controversial streaming service Kick.<\/p>
On the surface, it’s not hard to see why Kick has gotten popular. It markets itself as the cool younger cousin to Twitch, where moderation standards that can sometimes be seen as draconian<\/a> are relaxed and where anything goes. Unfortunately, anything means anything<\/em>, and Kick has rapidly become defined by those who take advantage of its lax rules.<\/p>
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Perhaps the most famous of these is Johnny Somali (who is actually Ethiopian, but I guess that doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.) He spearheaded a trend known as “nuisance streaming,” which essentially consists of harassing random people on the street\u2014sometimes physically\u2014for views, and eventually led to Somali’s arrest and the implementation of an official <\/a>report button on Kick. The fact that one wasn’t there from the start sums up Kick’s approach to content moderation.<\/p>
With all this controversy, one might wonder how Kick still manages to attract big-name streamers\u2014and the answer is, of course, money. The revenue split on Kick is weighed heavily in the streamers’ favor compared to Twitch, and many streamers have been brought over by multi-million dollar contracts<\/a> on top of that. Not everyone seems tempted by that siren song, however.<\/p>
Twitch streamer Pokimane<\/a> has never been one to shy away from making a buck\u2014remember her cookie controversy<\/a>?\u2014but Kick has become a bridge too far for her. In a recent stream, she reacted to an expos\u00e9<\/a> on prolific Kick streamer Tomer Lawton, which alleges that he has made a career out of sexually harassing women in front of a live audience.<\/p>
