Gaming live streamer Paul Denino, better known as Ice Poseidon, has faced a lot of controversies in the past. It would be an understatement to call him controversial when his streams were so often swatted—viewers calling the police on someone as a prank. In 2022, prominent financial scam exposé YouTuber Coffeezilla confronted Paul about his failed CX Coin cryptocurrency project and urged him to return the money to investors. Not too long ago, on June 28, 2023, Paul was also arrested in Bangkok for performing a lap dance on his then-girlfriend, which broke Thailand’s anti-pornography laws. On September 21, 2023, Paul found himself under fire again for a “hidden” camera stream.
The stream featured an unnamed man and a sex worker. Without context, the scene looked dodgy, if not illegal. Paul later clarified after receiving backlash that it was at least somewhat staged, with video evidence. The sex worker was fully informed of the filming, and the camera was not hidden. Paul also warned the unnamed man that he should not block the door or stop the sex worker, should she decide to leave out of discomfort.
Regardless of Paul’s defense of the situation, the sex worker was visibly shaken by this “prank” and left the room after receiving a message of being “set up.” The unnamed man, despite having been warned, also tried to block the door to keep the woman from leaving.
Pranks are fun and good, as long as they don’t put people in danger or make the chat believe that the streamer is getting away with one of the sickest activities on the internet: illegal spycams. Even if they were trying to capture a “random” reaction from this reality TV-style stream, it still capitalizes on the idea that the sex worker doesn’t know about the camera or the live stream, and while the woman left so quickly that it’s hard to tell what the prank was intended to be, it’s hard to imagine one that would have made this all okay.
Outside of debating the ethics of this stream, there was an even more disturbing finding by some Twitter users. A co-founder of the live-streaming platform Kick, Eddie Craven, was caught sending laughs in Ice Poseidon’s chat on the stream. This was prior to Paul’s revelation of this stream being some kind of prank stream, which rightfully had many people alarmed over the safety of creators and other people appearing on the platform.
Several Kick live streamers announced a pause in their activities on the platform because of this discovery, and others expressed disgust over choosing to stream on Kick at all after the event. Many vocal streamers criticized Kick itself for not banning Ice Poseidon from the platform despite violating community guidelines while also raging against co-founder Eddie for his behavior.
As of the publication date of this article, Eddie Craven has not released any statements regarding the issue.
(featured image: screengrab from Ice Poseidon’s stream)
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Vanessa Esguerra
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