What is Kick, the platform that livestreamed a man’s death this week?

Earlier this week, a Frenchman named Raphaël Graven died in his sleep during a livestreamed broadcast on the Kick platform.

Known online as Jean Pormanove, the man appeared to have been subjected to violence and humiliation in online videos for months, according to reports.

French police are investigating the circumstances of Graven’s death. Representatives of Kick say they too are reviewing what happened.

So what did happen? We don’t yet know – but as a livestreaming researcher I can tell you about Kick, the controversial platform where this tragic event was broadcast to the world.

What is Kick?

Kick is a video livestreaming website. People broadcast live video to an audience who can comment and donate money in real time.

The content of the stream can be practically anything, but on Kick it often involves videogames, gambling, or just people hanging out.

Kick was launched in late 2022 with funding from the Australian billionaires behind the cryptocurrency gambling site Stake.com. Kick set out to compete with livestreaming giant Twitch, promising less content moderation and lower fees for streamers.

The loose moderation means homophobic and racist language are commonplace, and parts of the site have developed an extreme right-wing culture.

Imagine a Venn diagram with circles labelled “gaming”, “gambling”, “livestreaming”, “right-wing politics”, “free-speech absolutism”, and “cryptocurrency”. Right in the middle, where all the circles overlap, is where we find Kick.

The quest for attention

Livestreamers on Kick, Twitch and elsewhere are constantly competing for attention and viewers. There is much discussion of the current “meta” – the Most Effective Tactic Available for drawing eyeballs and donations.

Sometimes the meta might involve relentlessly playing a single videogame. At other times it might be playing a mix of games, or introducing other content.

For a while the “hot tub meta” saw scantily-clad streamers playing video games while sitting in, of course, a hot tub.

Streamers sometimes also stage attention-grabbing stunts. In 2023, Twitch streamer Kai Cenat hosted a giveaway in New York which drew thousands of eager fans before devolving into a riot with dozens arrested by police.

The quest for novelty has led streamers to rediscover old forms such as game shows, too.

Entertainment in which people enjoy watching others suffer, take risks, or endure danger, is also nothing new. We might think about the pain and embarrassment played for laughs in Jackass, or more recently streamers gambling away millions of dollars live.

While the events surrounding Jean Pormanove’s death remain murky, lawyers for his co-streamers have said all apparent violence in their videos was scripted and staged – a kind of edgy entertainment, rather than reality.

What now?

It’s hard to say what’s ahead for Kick. The platform prides itself on being less regulated than Twitch in terms of content moderation.

Kick seems unlikely to introduce new rules for content unless forced. At present Kick does use some rudimentary content limiting systems, such as a popup on gambling channels asking viewers if they are 18 or over. (Clicking “yes” takes you through.)

Government regulations may have some effect. However, such regulations typically rely on the threat of blocking access to a website from a certain country – which can easily be circumvented by means of a virtual private network (VPN).

Much may depend on how much attention this incident receives. High-profile tragedies such as mass shootings can provoke cultural and legal change – but whether this is one of them remains to be seen.