Popular Twitch streamer Pokimane was nearly baited into showing an off-brand video during a recent stream.
Twitch streamers make a living off of their viewers. Part of the job is interacting with fans and making them feel like they’re a part of the community. As a result, streamers will often read out notes from donors. Sometimes, fans will even send streamers links to funny videos or clips that they want the streamer to watch.
Most streamers know that it isn’t a great idea to open mysterious links while on stream. Baiting isn’t a new internet phenomenon, and countless streamers have fallen victim to random trolls popping into the chat to say hello. By now, pretty much every streamer knows that it’s an incredibly bad idea to open links for the first time while live on stream. Every streamer except for Pokimane, that is.
During a recent broadcast, Pokimane accepted a donation from a subscriber, which included a message that read, “Hey Poki have you seen Ninja’s new Tik-Tok. Poggers!” Poki then clicked on the YouTube link, pulling up what she believed was one of Ninja’s new Tik-Toks. Watch the original video:
The video starts out with a familiar shot of Ninja standing in front of the camera. Like everything Ninja touches, it’s a video that has been circulating every corner of the internet for the past week or so. In the original video, the video jump-cuts from Ninja to makeup artist Jeffree Star. “Oh, I saw this,” Pokimane begins to say—thinking it’s the same video that has been populating everyone’s Twitter feed.
To her horror, she quickly finds out that Jeffree Star has been swapped for a nude man that’s moving in ways no nude man should ever move. “Oh my god,” whispers the shell shocked Pokimane. Fortunately, she was able to hit escape just before it panned down to the man’s exposed rear end. “Oh thank god! Oh! The reflexes man.”
Streamers are responsible for all of the content that appears during their broadcast, and a video like that could easily warrant a suspension from Twitch. For Pokimane, who has nearly 4 million followers, a suspension means potentially losing out on thousands of dollars. She was lucky to close out when she did.
Pokimane, like the many streamers who have fallen prey to the arrant viewer prank, hopefully learned a valuable lesson. Even if you’re a streamer with a loyal following, it’s not a good idea to always trust the chat.
