A streamer of the MMORPG Runescape advised a woman who appeared to be at risk of suicide to take her own life. This led to public outrage and a ban on Twitch. The MMORPG also intervenes and bans his account.
This is the streamer in question: The Australian streamer Aus_Swag is a Runescape player who holds partner status on Twitch. He has approximately 2000 followers on the streaming service.
This scene outrages many: It concerns a passage from a Runescape stream that does not directly relate to the game.
A woman asks him to call a person who is apparently having suicidal thoughts. He is supposed to advise her to seek professional help.
The streamer actually calls the woman and then says: “Honestly, I think you should just kill yourself.”
Then his friends, who are also on the call, burst into laughter, and the streamer shakes with laughter and falls off his chair.
This is how the public reacted: Although the clip quickly disappeared from Twitch, the incident went viral on other platforms and generated significant outrage.
On Reddit the shock is immense: Many apparently cannot believe what they are seeing. Especially the fact that others are laughing about it and affirming him angers people. The post has over 14,300 upvotes and 1700 comments.
Users demanded Twitch to ban Aus_Swag.
Twitch then indeed banned the streamer, but without much comment.
Runescape says: Behavior is so serious that we do not tolerate it
This is how Runescape reacted: The MMORPG “Runescape” also banned the streamer.
They stated in a post on the Runescape forum that they have no business relationship with the streamer, but the incident is so serious that they have taken steps to clearly convey the message that this behavior will not be tolerated.
They describe the incident as “incredibly serious.”
Therefore, the Runescape account of the player will be banned. They emphasize that they take these issues incredibly seriously at Runescape and do everything to support the community with such problems.
Streamer says: It was a joke
This is what the streamer says: After the incident, Aus_Swag tries to apologize by saying it was a joke. He claims that his microphone was muted when he made the statement.
He also posted a photo showing that he donated $200 to an Australian organization that wants to help people with suicidal thoughts, among other things.
Furthermore, the streamer uploaded a YouTube video showing a conversation with the woman. This is supposed to prove that she did not understand him at all. However, the video receives disastrous reactions from the community. Apparently, his apology is not being accepted.
This is what it’s about: The outrage over the behavior is so great that even the MMORPG intervenes, even though the incident did not occur directly in the game, but in a Runescape stream.
The intense reaction of the people also shows that a clear taboo has been broken here: One does not make jokes about suicide.
Similarly, the Twitch community reacted strongly recently to a Fortnite streamer:
