Yahoo Finance Twitch streamer who was sexually assaulted during live-stream says she was blamed by viewers
A Twitch streamer who was sexually assaulted while live-streaming said some viewers blamed her for the attack and that she worried she would be kicked off the platform as a result.
Jasmine Vo, a 25-year-old from Canada, who goes by the Twitch username IMJASMINE, where she has more than 190,000 followers, was speaking with 5,000 viewers during a trip to Osaka, Japan in September when a stranger approached her and groped her.
Speaking to Vice about the attack, Vo said some of her followers urged her to leave the situation when they realised she might be in danger, while others played a “siren sound effect in her stream”.
“It was at that moment I thought: ‘Okay, this is a camera. It can’t protect me. This man keeps on grabbing me. He won’t let me go,’” Vo told the outlet. “I was crying uncontrollably. I just felt really alone.”
Vo eventually moved away from the man, who continued to follow her for a couple of blocks.
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Following the attack, which she did not report to police, Vo said she worried about the impact it would have on her Twitch platform, a social media site that is primarily used by male gamers, because although some viewers tried to help her, others began shaming her.
“I was so overwhelmed… I was afraid that I would get backlash, or that Twitch would ban me,” Vo said. “Because the platform majority is males, sometimes as a female, you can be seen in a certain light.”
Vo said she received comments from viewers blaming her for what she was wearing, or telling her that she “brought this upon herself”.
“I would get so many comments like that,” she continued, adding that she has changed her own behaviour since the attack. “There are times where I decide ‘I’m not going to wear this because I’m afraid something might happen.’ I’m a lot more wary about precautions.”
According to Statista, in 2019, approximately 65 per cent of Twitch users worldwide were male.
Twitch has previously been accused of perpetuating an environment “hostile to women,” according to Vice, which notes that users previously organised a blackout as a way of pressuring the company to address the issue.
This is also not the first time that female streamers or gamers have spoken out about the culture of sexism and gender-based discrimination in the gaming world, as The New York Times notes that dozens of women in gaming shared allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and sexism in June.
In a statement to Vice, Twitch said it is implementing a number of changes to make the platform safer and to “address the harassment that streamers face”.
“We have a number of projects underway to address the harassment that streamers face, which we know disproportionately affects women and other underrepresented groups. Sexual harassment is never acceptable on Twitch, and we have adopted a far lower tolerance for objectifying or harassing behaviour,” Twitch said.
The Independent has contacted Vo and Twitch for comment.
