A WARNING: I want to first say that any videos used, are merely for context. Please don't go out of your way to harass those within them. Seriously. Just don't.
Firstly, I'll go over the following;
What is Kick?
Why is it so appealing?
Why is it so toxic?
Is it dangerous?
My Story
These key points of interest, will be broken down into sections, so feel free to skip a section or read through everything. The choice is entirely yours.
What is Kick?
Kick is a live streaming platform that began in 2022 by what many call 'Angry Twitch Streamers'. The appeal of Kick is that it allows you to earn a larger income, without the company dipping into your money. Kick was founded in 2022 as a competitor to Amazon-owned Twitch, with a focus on looser moderation and higher revenue shares for streamers. Kick is mostly known for its 5% revenue charge. Kick's revenue split is 95% to the streamer and 5% to the platform, among the most generous in streaming. Kick's split is often compared to Twitch's former 50-50 split between creators and the platform, and less frequently, with YouTube taking a 30% cut from livestreamers.
Why is it so appealing?
Kick's appeal can be narrowed down to the revenue split which is 95% to the streamer with only 5% going to the company. They've enticed many with the possibility of also paying their streamers an hourly rate of $16 USD per hour of streaming, however, this possibility comes with conditions, such as the streamer being active for at least four hours per day out of thirty days in a month, the streamer being awake and interacting with chat, the streamer having a webcam on their face, and being the age of majority.
Why is it so toxic?
One of the major issues with the website is the lack of stringent content moderation policies, which has resulted in the proliferation of toxic and harmful behavior. The site's entire core focus is on looser moderation which allows highly harmful behaviors such as cyber bullying, stalking, doxxing, threatening behavior to go largely unchecked and unchallenged. Kick's own moderation team has, on multiple occasions been caught in higher tier streams, threatening chat members with being banned for simply being confused about the site's policies, rules and regulations, and it's Code of Conduct (CoC). In a recent Sportskeeda article, many explain why the site can be considered as not only harmful, but dangerous, simply due to the behaviors that are allowed. According to a TheLatch article, Kick is controversial because it allows people to live stream gambling games. What's more, a lot of these streams advertise Stake's slot machine services. On 19 June, three of the top “Slots & Casino” streamers were offering Stake promo codes. Bearing in mind that while there is an age requirement in affect, many people have pointed out, how easy it is for minors to get onto the site and view such content. This has then sparked outrage among parents for the lack of moderation where it concerns the welfare and wellbeing of those on the platform as a whole and towards the minors who manage to get onto the site's platform. All in all, Kick might be a good streaming platform for content creators but as we'll see, for audiences, the platform is much more toxic than Twitch and YouTube, and that's saying a lot.
Is it dangerous?
As I've pointed out, Kick has looser moderation where it concerns the harmful behaviors of it's streamers. Recently however, a Kick streamer was arrested in Japan, a country well known for allowing livestreaming to happen on it's streets. Recently, well known youtuber, Chris Broad, known for his likeable attitude and his viewpoint on Japan, making a career on his Youtube channel 'Abroad in Japan', posted a video in which well known Kick streamer Johnny Somali was finally arrested after a 6 month reign of terror, while he was in Japan. In one video, he's seen confronting well known Twitch streamer, Meowko, resulting in her later being filmed in tears over the altercation. During the altercation, Somali can be heard yelling at Meowko “I’m on Kick. We don’t like Twitch streamers,” he said, causing her to walk off. “Bye-bye. Get banned b*tch. Get banned! You better not show me on your stream, you’ll get banned.” Such behaviors are well known on the platform and due to looser moderation, many Kick streamers, sadly, get away with their antics. And this is only one such case where Kick has allowed innocent people to be targeted by their streamers.
My Story
On June 10, 2023, at 3am I was rushed to the Port McNeill Hospital. I arrived at 6:21am and managed to snap the following photo to show my followers on Twitter, where I was and how I was doing thus far.
As can be clearly seen, I'm in a hospital ward. I didn't show my wrist which had an IV line init as some find such things as triggering, which I can understand. It was during this time period, while I'm laying in this hospital bed, that another user on Kick, using my gamer handle of 'KhaleesiKiyiyaWolf23' was going around, saying racist and homophobic slurs. I had previously made my own account the night prior using my usual gamerhandle of 'KhaleesiKiyiyaWolf' simply because I wanted to show the few friends of mine who were/are on the platform, my continued support.
Unaware of what was transpiring on the platform, I was laid up for a week after suffering from an infection of my gall bladder, which pretty much brought me to my knees. Upon returning home, I was informed by a friend of mine that my account was 'gone' on the platform and confused, I attempted to log in, only to discover, I'd been IP banned. Even more confused, as I'd not interacted on the platform, I sent an inquiry email, requesting information as to why I was banned, with no reply the first time round. Frustrated, I sent a second, demanding the information be released or I'd get a lawyer involved. A bit extreme, yes, but it worked. I was informed I'd been 'seen' on the platform, saying racial slurs and homophobic slurs on June 10 at 4am my time.
Naturally this was impossible as I only had my cell phone on me and I was in too much pain to do anything aside from snap a quick photo, post it to my Twitter, and then lay in that hospital bed, while trying not to scream from the amount of pain I was in (please keep in mind that this time round, pain meds weren't working fast enough and the medical team was gearing up to call for a medivac - thankfully the meds worked but that's how serious this was). I informed the responding staff member that this was impossible and why. I included the above photo, my hospital check-in band, plus the prescriptions I was given upon my release, along with my doctor's note, releasing me from school for a month, due to the infection at hand.
For nearly three weeks I got no reply. I'm assuming staff was investigating but was never really informed of this. I was simply told they'd 'check into' the situation. After three weeks of anxious wait, I was informed the ban wouldn't be lifted, as, despite the undisputable amount of evidence I'd provided, showing I hadn't been online, they, the Kick moderation team, couldn't determine if I was telling the truth or not. And despite the two accounts not being linked by a shared IP address, I was still considered as 'in the wrong' and have, to this day, remained banned.
What I've Seen on Kick
Prior to my ban, I was informed by a friend of mine that he had intentions of livestreaming on the platform but at the same time, was displeased that 'stripping' seemed to be allowed there. I want to address this.
My mom used to be an exotic dancer aka a Stripper. She paid her way through school by doing this. Alot of my friends have paid their way through college by doing this. In no way, shape or form, is an Exotic Dancer, a slut or a whore. Just because your girlfriend or boyfriend wouldn't do it, doesn't mean everyone fits the same mold. Many of us don't have the luxury of relying on help from the government or family to support ourselves and so, we do what we have too. In the hit song by Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul and Ann-Marie, they sing the song 'Rockabye'. In this song we can see an Exotic pole dancer, dancing to earn what income she can to make sure her son is cared for. I want people to understand that this situation isn't isolated. It's not a one off thing. In many cities around the world, women and men are forced into situations they normally wouldn't be, in an attempt to survive. With the prices of rent sky rocketing at an uncontrollable rate, many single parent homes, are being faced with; eviction, phone or electric shut off notices, food shortages, etc. Exotic dancing provides hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If you're good enough, you can easily make in a single night, two months worth of rent. If you're very good, that price can sky rocket.
However, the person pointed out was a recovering victim of domestic assault so severe, that at one point, during a Twitch livestream, her stream suddenly ended, while we were all hearing what her abusive partner was saying to her; "I'm going to come kill you. No one's going to know where to find you. I'm outside your house right now." Please keep in mind that as a survivor of domestic assault myself, seeing the views being openly talked about by people I consider friends but now, doubt I would trust with my own story of survival, was telling. People were openly judging a woman for dressing in a manner they considered to be inappropriate and provocative. Many stated, that by dressing in the manner in which she does, more than likely was the cause of her abuse. These statements were so far from the truth, that it was downright appalling, that such statements were being spoken about, especially when considering, a quick Youtube search would of given them all the information they needed and required.
But it was on her Kick livestreaming chat, that I noticed Kick admins and moderators, singling out chatters in her stream and threatening to ban them if they didn't like how Kick worked or ran the show. The harassment went so far as to having the streamer telling them to please stop, that as this was her community, people were welcomed and even encouraged to ask questions as she was and is, more than willing to answer them if she can. This resulted in the team, redirecting their attention onto her and threatening her.
In Closing
While I still love the friends I've made on Twitch, I simply refuse to support them on a platform that's so out of control and out of touch with reality. You can be displeased with your payouts from Twitch but at the end of the day, the fact remains; you jumped ship from something that was and is, well established, stable, and has a team that's not racist, homophobic, and actually does their job, for a ship that's unstable (both mentally, emotionally and clearly maturely) all because the payout is better. Money is, at the end of the day, not worth the loss of friendships. It's not worth people being wrongfully accused of saying something they didn't say. And it's certainly not worth supporting a platform, that does nothing against a streamer, who livestreamed his being arrested to the platform, for breaking into a construction site, in Japan, while actively broadcasting, what can only be described as a distasteful thing to say, especially given the context, in which he was saying these things.
My inner peace is not worth my supporting you on a platform, that's highly toxic, and highly dangerous, as it does nothing to stop the promotion of an unhealthy mindset. And it's been proven countless times by countless streamers, who did just that. They jumped ship. They moved to Kick. Only to discover, it was much worse there than it was on Twitch. There are dozens of articles announcing why Kick is so dangerous, harmful, toxic, etc. The cons in this case, outweigh any of the pros because, even if you self moderate your own channel, you're still apart of a platform that supports a toxic mindset and allows negativity to reign supreme.
I can wholly understand wanting to earn a living via livestreaming video games but understand, that unless you're buying every new game that comes out, this mindset of "I'm going to livestream today and make $4k!" is not only unhealthy, it's toxic and it sets you up for failure because you're not going to be buying every game that hits the market. You're not going to be able to afford to live if you do so. So you have to settle on a select series of games that you, personally enjoy and hope and pray, that that enjoyment comes across to your viewers.
Live streaming for the sake of earning an income, is so toxic. It's so unhealthy. I've seen Ninja get burned out from doing what he does. I've seen other streamers go through burn out and depression because they feel like they've failed if they don't hit certain milestones.
Gaming shouldn't be about getting rich quick, it should be about you, having fun with your viewers and in some cases, your subscribers should they join you in-game. I can't tell you how many days we would have a blast while my friend CrooksyPlays, livestreamed on the Mixer platform. He was having fun. He didn't care if you subscribed, donated, etc. Was it appreciated if you did? Hell yes! But at the end of the day, he livestreamed playing Minecraft and Fortnight, because he was having fun.
Playing video games were a stress relief for him and for many others, but when playing ends up leading you to livestream on a toxic platform, that's where serious questions need to be answered. Serious soul searching needs to be done. While you yourself may not support the platform's toxicity, the fact that you're even on it supports them. You're now a statistical number and therefore, a finical gain to them as a company. And this, ultimately, ends up supporting them. This ultimately ends up supporting the toxic behaviors that go unchecked and unchallenged on the platform.
In Somali's case, he got a 72 hour ban for his antics in one case. A case in which, had he done this on his former Twitch platform, would of seen him permanently banned and in fact, he is.
I love my friends. I love them to bits. But my inner peace, my 'I don't need your fucking drama', is far more important than supporting you on a platform that allows cyber bullying, doxxing, etc, to go on, unchecked. Because sooner or later, Kick is going to find itself on the rotten end of the law because someone, somewhere, is going to use their platform, for far more sinister things and someone, somewhere, is going to end up seriously hurt, or worse, killed.
To everyone, please remember that I love you. Stay safe.
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