Streamer Brandon “Atrioic” Ewing has been active on Twitch and on YouTube since 2011, building his channels over the years. But Twitter users have now caught him clicking on a page during a stream that featured paid “deepfakes” of Twitch streamers. This ruined his reputation and career.
What was the streamer caught doing?
- On January 30, a clip circulated showing that Twitch streamer Atrioc had a tab open in his browser that displayed a deepfake website (via twitter). It featured montages based on famous female Twitch streamers. The images and videos were pornographic. The clip has since been deleted – there has been a widespread attempt to curb the distribution of the clip and the site.
- The website is structured similarly to OnlyFans, as Kotaku reports: It requires a subscription to view the images. Therefore, it was clear that Atrioc must have paid for the service.
- It is also sensitive that Atrioc is friends with some of the female Twitch streamers who were pornographically depicted in the deepfakes, and they only found out about the existence of the website through this mistake. Affected streamers like QTCinderella expressed deep shock and concern that such images exist.
Twitch streamer emphasizes that he is actually quite different, advocates for women
This is what the streamer says: In a Twitch stream, Atrioc explains his situation. The Twitch streamer says he has been trying for years to ensure that especially women feel comfortable on Twitch.
He has always stood against sexist things, does not tolerate it, and bans sexist remarks as soon as he sees them.
Researched deepfakes, then clicked on the wrong advertisement on a porn site
How did the incident occur? The situation has been a one-time event. It was 2 AM, and his girlfriend was not in town:
It was 2 AM, and I was reading so damn much about artificial intelligence, about deepfake music, deepfake art, and I’m in these damn Discords. It’s all so embarrassing. I was on the damn Pornhub site, a completely normal site, and there was an ad, it was this ad on every damn video – so other people must click on it too because it was on every video.
The streamer emphasizes that he is the “most vanilla guy”, the “most normal guy”, and would never do such a thing again. He is very sorry for it.
Atrioc’s girlfriend, who sat next to him in the stream crying, adds: A paywall would not stop her boyfriend, it is normal for him to pay through such walls – that means nothing.
If her boyfriend says he will never do it again, then she believes him.
Twitch streamer shuts down site – Atrioc will pay for it
What about the website? As Vice writes, the operator of this website has since taken the content offline and published an apology. It is said to have been “eye-opening” how Atrioc was treated after he was caught. Only then did the site operator apparently realize what exactly he was putting online…
Atrioc himself explains (via twitter), that the closure was probably not as voluntary as the operator portrays it. The website was shut down through the efforts of streamer QTCinderella and a law firm.
Atrioc says he will cover the closing costs and will also financially support women who need legal assistance.
To show that he wants to focus on this, he will stop producing content. At least for a while.
How is this being discussed? Many streamers and content creators have now addressed the case. From Forsen to xQc to bodybuilder Knut and HasanAbi, many streamers have commented on the clip.
The affected female streamers have also talked about being portrayed in this way, especially QTCinderella.
During the discussion, it is noticeable that particularly controversial content creators like Keemstar seem to be pleased that an “actually nice guy” like Atrioc is now being caught up in this (via Twitter).
It is said that those who pretend to be friends of women are actually the perverted ones on Twitch.
Atrioc says: Some people have also pledged their support for him in this matter. What he did is not wrong, and he does not need to apologize for it. To those people, he wants to say: “Screw you. Honestly, I don’t want your support. I’m not on your side.”
Atrioc’s behavior shocks many – and him as well – because it is not what was expected of him. For other streamers, a career collapse seemed just a matter of time:
Streamer apparently ruins 11 years of career in 14 seconds – Twitch permanently bans him
