Kick bans streamer for livestreaming while driving

While streamers often focus on playing games or chatting with their audience, some content creators enjoy livestreaming while out in the real world. A streamer can broadcast their travels abroad or offer their unfiltered view at a conference. But the trend of real-life livestreaming has sometimes shifted to more unsavory actions and even outright crimes. A 21-year-old creator, Jack Doherty, caused a storm of controversy on Saturday after he crashed his expensive sports car while streaming and texting, all on a Kick livestream. After the accident, Doherty continued the broadcast and showed his audience the aftermath live.

Kick has long been a controversial streaming service, launching the promise of free speech for content creators – and encouraging lucrative gambling streams. The platform aims to compete with Amazon-backed Twitch and offers generous profit-sharing ratios and relaxed moderation policies.

This policy has led to Kick being immersed in ongoing controversies, with streamers logging harassment, disruption and other unethical scenarios on the platform. While many of these incidents have sparked public outrage, few have received as much attention as Jack Doherty’s crash. During the weekend’s livestream, Doherty drove a sports car and frequently checked his phone to read the chat. While multitasking, he lost control of his McLaren and hit a guardrail. Doherty then filmed himself getting out of the car and inspecting the damage. His passenger, a cameraman, is visibly bleeding in the images. Doherty escaped unharmed, he said, and no one else was involved in the accident.

In response, Kick permanently banned Doherty, with a spokesperson telling NBC that the platform “does not condone illegal activity, which is why we took swift action to ban this creator from the platform.” Doherty, who has been an online influencer since childhood, has a well-documented history of controversy on both YouTube and Kick. He is currently facing assault and battery charges related to an alleged altercation at a party involving his bodyguard.

Kick is already in hot water with the public due to a recent altercation at TwitchCon, where several Kick broadcasters were filmed harassing or attacking Twitch streamers. Kick CEO Ed Craven told our IRL streaming policy.”