Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/04/gamer-who-beat-wife-on-livestr.html
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These motherfuckers…
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This gets the “Late Stage Capitalism” tag, right?
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-Can we make money off this?
-ehhhh, lets try
-getting some push back
-ehhhh, we can cut him loose
-something something sorry, I guess
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I hate these folks but I feel like I get mixed messages from Boing Boing. On one hand we want these companies to act like utilities not responsible for the content just providing infrastructure. Definitely don’t want youtube policing for copyright infringement etc. Then come assholes saying unpopular things or being awful people and suddenly we want them to police content?
I see a difference between Boing Boing who actively polices the content and will moderate vs some streaming company’s that practically have a monopoly.
I’m just disappointed that assholes like this guy and pewdiepie are popular. I want people to be better and honestly I don’t know what’s going on with lots of “online spaces” I feel they’re trying to play it both ways “we’re a community we have community standards” “we’re a utility we’re not responsible for what our users do”. Just wish companies would be forced to pick one.
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Surely you don’t need the partner to press charges when it’s done on air?
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Twitch isn’t that sort of company. I’m not going after his ISP, for example, or even after Epic Games. Twitch is profiting from his performance. Its dressing and presentation of the underlying bits and bytes takes it far out of the realm of infrastructure and into that of media and entertainment content.
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True I guess I’m thinking more in reference to youtube. Although when it comes to live streaming and games I feel like twitch has something akin to a monopoly (at least based off of my ever so scientific sampling of headlines).
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That was my thinking when I heard about this yesterday.
How can something be “alleged” if thousands/millions(?) of people witness it live?
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Even if it does have a near-monopoly, I don’t buy the idea that Twitch is a public-square like environment. It is speech, of course, but the speech is (IMO) Twitch’s at the point of consumption. All Twitch has is a monopoly on its own streaming-based content model. Another way of putting it is that the speech can be exported to other platforms – it just won’t be as accessible or profitable as it is on Twitch.
It’s like blog comments: you say it, but you’re giving your speech to someone else to publish in return for the audience they provide. They can’t be obliged to publish it without infringing the host’s own corresponding rights to free expression.
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Agreed but am I the only one cynical enough to entertain the thought that this was all a sham (in poor taste) for the purpose of creating exposure? From my understanding of what I read it happened “off camera” but could be heard.
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Since it was off-screen, there is always the remote possibility that he did something abusive or threatening short of actually striking her (like slapping his hands together in front of her face). Given the libel laws in Australia, a little well-shaded caution is advisable.
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Not at all; I often question the very reality we currently live in, because it’s just that batshit.
If it’s real, there’s little question that assault/battery occurred. If it’s a hoax, then shame on people that would glibly marginalize the seriousness of domestic violence, and I hope the ploy backfires on them horribly.
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I feel like there’s a difference between “host” and “platform” tho. I feel like this wouldn’t even be a discussion worth having if the internet functioned how it was supposed to in a “decentralized” sort of way.
“The accused showed remorse for his actions during the interview stating that he was aware that his actions were inappropriate and that he should not have done what he did.” – news.com.au
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Wait, so I’m not entitled to your megaphone? /s
The operative word for me there is remote. Every time I give these shitheads the slightest benefit of the doubt, they turn out to be every bit as reprehensible as possible.
What a creep. Inappropriate is telling an off-color joke or saying the N-word in public while rapping along to a song like Ninja did. Spouse-beaters belong in jail.
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I guess it comes down to whether you want Twitch to keep doing what it’s doing, but police its users’ whole lives; or stop doing what it’s doing.
The problem is that the second answer is clearly the right one, but it’s just too difficult to hear, so we keep trying to find ways for the first answer to be viable in the face of all the evidence.
People are sometimes sublime and mostly boring but often shitty. Overall we are an unedifying spectacle, and that is why we have spent the past ten thousand years moving everyone into dwellings with opaque walls, and developing books and music and theater as a replacement for being able / having to watch your fellow humans rutting and pooping in the woods 24/7.
OK, so it turns out we really like unedited feeds of strangers’ lives. Well, we like a lot of things that are horribly bad for us. At this point we should be well aware that something like Twitch is going to give us all hollow ego boosts, yes, but also it’s going to end up celebrating scum.
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Yeah honestly smacking your kids and wife is exponentially more common than being a mass media genius that pulls off a viral ad. I don’t even know why people are so eager to credit folks with the latter. It’s rare and takes real skill, talent, and effort. Most people don’t have any of those qualities generally.
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Hm, 90 is a lot.
Welcome to Boingz.
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