French streamer’s on-air death provokes outcry as authorities probe allegations of abuse

Paris – The death of a French streamer on an prolonged program caused an introduction by the soul and a controversy as Minister of the Government said that Raphaël Graven had been “humiliated and mistreated for months” on the branch and that a judicial investigation explores the alleged abuse.

Graven, 46, also known as Jean Pormanove, died on Monday in Nice during a broadcast on the delivery delivery platform that had been working for more than 298 hours. The French media reported that the broadcast had been interrupted shortly after the co-stretch of Pormanove found it unconscious and lying on a bed.

Damien Martinelli, the prosecutor of the city of southern France, said in a statement that the autopsy carried out Thursday showed that the death had not been caused by a trauma and “not linked” to the intervention of a third party. Some additional medical and toxicological analyzes have been ordered, he said.

The death of Pormanove came when a judicial investigation was already being violated and alleged humiliations committed against him, provoked by reports from the French website Mediapart on what he described as “the online abuse company”. Mediatart said the co-stretchs would have mistreated Pormanove in live shows, sometimes encouraged by viewers’ payments, to generate more subscriptions and money.

The investigation, opened in December, examines “deliberate violence against vulnerable persons” and “dissemination of images of images related to offenses involving deliberate violations of physical integrity”, said the Martinelli press release. He did not specify why Pormanove could be considered vulnerable.

The press release indicates that two co-stretches which would have been involved in the case were briefly placed in police custody, but were released while waiting for a more in-depth investigation.

In parallel, said Nice Procutor, the investigators interviewed Pormanove and one of his co-stretching who both seemed victims of violence and humiliation. They “firmly denied having been victims of violence, declaring that the events had been organized to” generate a buzz “and earn money”.

Pormanove’s death caused strong reactions on social networks, as many users have questioned the authorities’ failure to act.

Clara Chappaz, French Minister of Digital Media, said that the death of Pormanove was “absolutely horrible” and that she had contacted the directors of the platform for an explanation.

“Jean Pormanove was humiliated and mistreated for months live on the kick platform,” she said in a press release on X.

Kick said all of Pormanove’s co-stretchs who participated in the broadcast were prohibited pending the outcome of the investigation.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Jean Pormanove and extend our sincere condolences to his family, his friends and his community,” said Kick in a statement published on X. “We are committed to cooperating fully with the authorities in this process. We undertake a complete examination of our content in French.”

According to French media, Pormanove was used to participate in so -called “marathon” events on the air for a long time, with incentives to viewers to subscribe or make donations. He has accumulated more than a million followers on several video platforms, including more than 192,000 on Kick.

An Australian company, Kick is a video streaming platform similar to Amazon Twitch, but with a much more permissive moderation policy that allows you to disseminate game activities, sexually suggestive content involving humiliation or violence without automatic sanctions – attracting prohibited influencers from other platforms.

“All platforms have legal responsibility to delete obvious illegal content they are aware of,” said Chappaz.

Mediatart reported that a few hours before his death, Pormanove was the victim of mistreatment when some co-stretchs slapped him and struck him several times.

Martinelli, the prosecutor, said that the investigators had conducted several interviews with people present at the time of death and a large amount of material and video sequences were also seized.