Twitch Streamer Apologises For Beating His Partner During Livestream

A streamer and prominent player within the NBA 2K16 community has publicly apologised this afternoon for beating his partner during a livestream.

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The scandal occurred over the past 24 hours with audio being uploaded to YouTube featuring a woman screaming and begging for her partner to stop beating her. That person was later identified as streamer joedaddy505, a well known YouTuber, Twitch streamer and NBA 2K16 player, who did not know the stream was live at the time.

Anna Merlan from Jezebel, who originally reported the story, describes the contents of the audio below — audio which has resulted in Joedaddy’s Twitch account being removed for “terms of service violations”.

TRIGGER WARNING: The below details an episode of alleged domestic violence and is highly disturbing.

The audio lasts about six minutes. The man being streamed from JoeDaddy’s account sounds extremely intoxicated and can be heard calling the woman a “bitch, a “whore” and a “slut,” making derogatory remarks about her vagina, and accusing her of cheating. She can be heard crying, screaming, and saying, “Get off me” and “I’m going to call the cops.” At times, she’s screaming so wildly it’s impossible to make out what she’s saying. It’s unclear whether the woman was also being sexually assaulted; many commenters on YouTube and Reddit have speculated that’s the case. After listening to the audio, we can’t rule it out.

Joedaddy was intoxicated during the incident and on a video downloaded from his YouTube channel by DramaAlert that has since been removed, he later tried to claim that “words got exchanged” and that “when females get involved, in the middle … like I said, two people man, dumb stuff happens bro”. “I never once laid my hand on anyone,” he added.

Joedaddy later confirmed that he did assault his partner, but tried to qualify his actions by referencing the recent death of his father, alcohol and that his partner struck him first.

Following the publication of Jezebel’s report, Twitch issued a statement:

We don’t comment on terms of service violations, but in regards to making reports to law enforcement, read on …
 
Twitch reaches out to appropriate law enforcement in cases where there is a credible threat of imminent physical harm or actual harm to others, and provides them with information sufficient to respond to the immediate incident to the extent we have it. We reserve the right to do so in our privacy policy. We do not provide PII of our users to other users or to law enforcement absent valid legal process. We inform users or law enforcement requesting information that: “We respond to requests for information or documents pursuant to validly issued and served subpoenas, warrants or court orders. We do not accept emailed or faxed service. Service must be completed via our agent for service of process.
 
Note that our privacy policy explains when we may disclose information to law enforcement as follows: Twitch may disclose User information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with US state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright law) or other applicable laws around the world (for example, in the country of your residence); or respond to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena, or warrant in the manner legally required by the requesting entity.
 
Twitch also reserves the right to disclose User information that we believe, in good faith and after making reasonable enquiries, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability to Twitch; protect Twitch from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations to protect the security or integrity of the Twitch Service; or to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Twitch, our Users, or others. We will notify you of these disclosures if we reasonably think we can do so legally and without harming the purpose of the disclosure.

A user with the same name has been a high-ranking member of the NBA 2K16 community as one of the players with the highest reputation for the game’s “Old Town” faction. JoeDaddy_505 can be seen on a billboard in a NBA 2K TV episode. The same user account was also an answer in an interactive segment in episode 26 where users were asked to identify the first Legend 5 player, although that episode has been pulled from 2K’s YouTube channel.

The reaction from the internet has been swift as well. While Joedaddy removed the majority of his social media accounts, responses continued to appear on his Instagram account. That account was later hacked and the gamer was doxxed, although information (which Jezebel found was false) about his ex-girlfriend, sister and mother were posted online. That’s been taken down and replaced with a note about how Joedaddy has been taken to a mental hospital. It’s not possible to verify whether that is the case, although photos supposedly from the same Instagram account are also floating around the internet showing self-harm.

Cross-checking from Jezebel found that the doxxed details were incorrect, although it serves as a lightning rod for vigilante justice. Perhaps more gruesome is the fact that the incident can be replayed in perpetuity until the videos are taken down from YouTube, the implications of which are disturbing enough as-is.


If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence, you can contact the Domestic Violence Hotline at 1800 656 463 or the 1800Respect national sexual assault, domestic and family violence hotline.


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