Popular Twitch streamer Paul “Ice_Poseidon” Denino was escorted off an airplane on April 28 after a viewer called in a bomb threat under his name. Denino was then later banned by Twitch for terms of service violations.
Flying from California to Arizona, Denino reportedly spilled his flight information while livestreaming from the airport before boarding. When the flight landed, Denino was pulled off the plane by police. Speaking to an Arizona news station, Denino said the call to the police was a prank aimed at him.
Denino claims no fault for leaking his location, but appeared upset about the situation in a livestream following the incident. “You swat my house, whatever, fuck you—you swat a plane?” said Denino. “That’s a whole other level. You don’t expect that to happen.”
Related: Twitch streamer swatted by “chill cop” that loves Twitch
Twitch responded to the incident by closing Denino’s Twitch channel “due to terms of service violations.”
In fact, following the incident, Twitch is updating its rules—and Denino is upset he’s being banned for the violation before it actually was a rule. In a video uploaded to YouTube on April 30, Denino recounted the situation, critiquing Twitch for its ban. Denino expressed concern over Twitch using his channel as a test case, punishing him for being an “innovative” streamer. IRL streams are an emerging content section on the streaming site, and Twitch has yet to fully understand how to handle it, Denino said. The company is creating rules and regulations as it goes, implementing terms of service as needed.
YouTube will now serve as Denino’s livestreaming service of choice. “YouTube Live is a better platform for IRL streaming and only in real life streaming when you compare rules of the two different sites,” Denino said. Denino will work with YouTube to help the service compete with Twitch as a livestreaming platform.
Twitch currently doesn’t have a rule preventing streamers from broadcasting their location. It’s unclear how the streaming service will respond to similar events—as well as preventing them—in the future. Similarly, Denino has not outlined a plan to prevent swatting, though he did mention that he will not stop doing “weird shit.”
