The German Twitch streamer Powny says she was threatened by a viewer during her stream. When she tried to report it to the Bremen police, she was not taken seriously by the officer, but was even mocked.
This is the streamer: The German streamer Powny is active on Twitch in her free time, having streamed about 560 hours in the last year, with an average of 50 to 100 viewers watching her.
She has 7300 followers. Most of her gaming time has been spent on Sekiro, Dark Souls III, and Bloodborne. However, she is also active in Just Chatting. (via sullygnome)
This is what she says: The streamer announced on Twitter that she was threatened by a user during her Twitch stream on Saturday.
The user said he had her address, would rape her, and drown her in the bathtub.
“Well, you must have a lot of time”
Powny then reported this threat to the Bremen police, where she encountered an officer who did not take her seriously, but mocked her, as she describes on Twitter:
- The police officer asked: “You play on the internet? Well, you must have a lot of time.”
- He recommended that she turn off the camera.
- The guy who threatened her was surely bored; he should buy a house and renovate it, then he wouldn’t have such thoughts.
- In the end, the officer said, according to Powny: “Well, if we find you dead in your bathtub, which would of course be the worst outcome for you, at least we have a lead for our investigation.”
Disciplinary proceedings against the officer are ongoing
Here’s what happened next: After Powny made this public on Twitter, other German female streamers came forward. They stated that they had also been threatened publicly in the same manner.
Additionally, the Twitter account of the Bremen police got involved, asking for contact and stating that the matter was forwarded to the complaints department.
Powny told Bento in a conversation that she later got an appointment with another officer, who took her statement again. The second officer treated her the way she had wished to be treated from the beginning. The streamer also forwarded the reports of other streamers who had been threatened as well.
As the Bremen police announced on Twitter, a disciplinary proceeding is ongoing against the officer who initially took her statement. He has been relieved of duty until the allegations are clarified.
Furthermore, the criminal police have begun investigations in the case of the streamer. The Bremen police is not commenting on the ongoing investigations.
A member of the state parliament in Bremen from the Greens has also announced plans to submit questions to follow up on how the police in Bremen deals with victims of hate speech and what measures are being taken to ensure that threats on the internet are taken seriously and not dismissed as trivial.
How serious such threats can become is evidenced by numerous examples from the USA.
For instance, the house of Twitch streamer DrDisrespect was shot at. In a swatting incident in December 2017, an innocent person lost their life.
A YouTube couple’s house was broken into:
The cover image is from a Twitch clip of Powny.
