Twitch has been sued for $25 million by a viewer unhappy at the streaming platform for showing him “scantily clad” female streamers. Several major Twitch streamers are named in the suit, such as Pokimane who just signed a multi-year exclusive deal with the platform.
In documents submitted to the Superior Court of California on June 15, 2020, and served to Twitch on June 19, 2020, California man Erik Estavillo seeks $25 million in damages from the streaming platform. Estavillo said that his depression, OCD, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and Crohn’s disease mean that he “heavily relies on the Internet for all of his entertainment needs.” The plaintiff, who also suffers from sex addiction because of his OCD, claims that “Twitch has extremely exacerbated his condition by displaying many sexually suggestive women streamers” through its “twisted” netcode.
Estavillo follows 786 female streamers and no men and says that it is “nearly impossible for the plaintiff to use Twitch without being exposed to such sexual content.” Streams with thumbnails of “scantily clad women” are shown to him, with no options to filter recommendations by gender. Estavillo also named several female streamers who expose viewers “sexually addictive material and content on a consistent and regular basis daily.” One of the streamers named is Amouranth, who had a major NSFW controversy in September 2019. Alinity, Pokimane, and Loserfruit are also named in the documents.
The documents ask that Twitch permanently bans all of the female streamers named in the filing for violating Twitch’s terms of service and for $25 million in damages to be rewarded to Estavillo and other Twitch Prime Turbo subscribers. Any leftover money can be donated to COVID-19 and “Black Lives Matters” charities.
Estavillo has filed lawsuits against gaming companies before, with suits against Microsoft, Blizzard Entertainment and Nintendo all being thrown out. It doesn’t look like this one will be any more successful, on the basis of Twitch’s terms of service. Twitch may argue that it terms of service state that it “takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any User Content” and that it is not “liable for any mistakes, defamation, slander, libel, omissions, falsehoods, obscenity, pornography, or profanity you may encounter when using the Twitch Services.”
The platform may also say that it has just updated its rules around nudity and NSFW content, which suggests it is doing something to make sure sexually suggestive content stays off of its platform. It seems unlikely that Twitch will have to argue any of that in a court of law, but stranger legal things have happened.
Source: Dexerto
