Why is TwitchCon so uniquely unsafe for streamers?

It looks like yearly at TwitchCon, one thing goes dangerously fallacious.

In 2022, a foam pit catastrophe left one attendee with a damaged again. In 2024, Kick-affiliated streamers harassed Twitch companions stay on the conference flooring. Tales of stalking, groping, and insufficient on-site response aren’t unusual.

Main creators, together with Valkyrae, QTCinderella, Hasan Piker, Disguised Toast, and Yvonnie, all publicly opted out of attending in 2025, citing security issues. 

And this yr, Emiru, a streamer with almost two million followers, was assaulted at her meet-and-greet on the primary day of TwitchCon 2025 in San Diego. Her attacker crossed a number of limitations, grabbed her face, and tried to kiss her earlier than her personal safety intervened. TwitchCon safety, she says, was nowhere to be discovered. Twitch’s official response was a prolonged submit on X describing how “security and safety of all these attending” is the occasion’s “highest precedence.”

“Twitch has zero tolerance for harassment or acts that inhibit the protection and safety of our neighborhood,” the submit learn.

In a submit on X, Emiru stated she was “damage and upset by how Twitch dealt with it throughout and after the very fact.” She emphasised that it was her personal workers — not occasion safety — who intervened, and that close by TwitchCon personnel “didn’t react and let the man stroll away.”

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“The lady who’s strolling me away is my very own private supervisor, and behind the sales space, the one two individuals who had been checking on me and comforting me had been her and my pal,” she wrote. “Not one of the TwitchCon workers got here to ask what occurred or if I used to be OK.”

After the clip of the assault went viral on social media, Twitch claimed that the person was instantly eliminated and completely banned from the platform and future occasions. Emiru referred to as that “a blatant lie.” (Mashable reached out to Twitch about its method to meet-and-greets extra broadly, and whether or not there are plans to alter or adapt them for future in-person occasions following this yr’s incident.)

“He was allowed to stroll away from my meet-and-greet,” she wrote. “I didn’t hear he was caught till hours later — and it felt like that solely occurred due to my supervisor urgent for it.”

This was, she stated, her final TwitchCon.

“I didn’t really feel cared for or protected, even bringing my very own safety and workers,” she wrote. “I can’t think about how creators with out these choices would really feel.”

Her assertion echoed what’s turning into a rising refrain: TwitchCon is not secure for streamers.

This does not occur at different conventions

At different large fan occasions — like San Diego Comedian-Con, held on the identical San Diego Conference Heart, or VidCon — the system is evident: celebrities are right here, followers are there, and there are bodily limitations, staffers, and buffers in between. These measures aren’t excellent, however they’re constant. The construction of these occasions is constructed on a primary understanding: Individuals who entice hundreds of thousands of viewers on-line want real-world safety offline.

When creators started evaluating their TwitchCon experiences to these at different conventions, a transparent hole emerged in how security is dealt with.

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Jessica Wyatt, a Twitch companion and gamer, shared on X that at PAX — a special gaming conference — a chat member found she was attending, flew to Melbourne, and “waited all day exterior the gate to seek out me.” She stated he cornered her, confessed his love, and harassed her. After she escaped and alerted PAX workers, the response was swift.

“They had been so extremely responsive and took it so severely,” Wyatt wrote. “On account of them being harmful, I used to be at PAX for just one hour to do model work. The top of safety launched themselves and put three guards subsequent to me for the hour. Clearly, they did not know what he seemed like, in order that they had been watching each one that got here as much as me to fulfill.”

Different creators identified how useful and considerate safety was at different GamerSupps occasions like Anime Expo in Los Angeles and different cons.

TwitchCon, in the meantime, has not fairly discovered that rhythm. Streamers roam the present flooring, movie stay content material (often known as IRL streaming), and work together with followers in actual time — typically with out escorts, devoted safety, and even seen workers oversight. The identical accessibility that makes Twitch really feel genuine on-line makes TwitchCon really feel alarmingly uncovered in particular person.

“TwitchCon, you failed Emiru. You failed your feminine creators and feminine attendees,” one fan wrote on X. “In only a few hours, you’ve proven parasocial followers that you just’ve created an setting the place [violence and violation] is feasible. Whereas the general public decries this and calls for reform, there are these watching this and seeing that it’s doable — and could also be planning on doing comparable, or worse, to different feminine streamers earlier than the con ends.”

Are parasocial relationships guilty?

Partly, sure. Streaming thrives on parasocial intimacy, or the phantasm of friendship between creator and viewer. Not like most YouTubers who attend VidCon or celebrities who attend Comedian-Con, Twitch streamers are stay for hours a day, responding to speak messages in real-time, and creating the sense of a two-way relationship. For some viewers, the boundary between “I help you” and “I do know you” dissolves fully. That emotional closeness can curdle into entitlement when followers meet creators in actual life. 

For streamers, the chance multiplies as a result of they’re anticipated to be approachable. Hugging followers, chatting off-camera, strolling the ground — these gestures are a part of the tradition that Twitch has constructed and monetized. The corporate has lengthy marketed TwitchCon as an IRL neighborhood celebration, however it hasn’t constructed the infrastructure to make that neighborhood secure when it spills into actuality.

The parasocial downside does not finish on the venue doorways. Many streamers have stalkers who monitor their places on-line or by way of stay broadcasts. In March, whereas livestreaming in Santa Monica with streamers Cinna and Valkyrae, a person reportedly threatened to kill Emiru, in line with a report from the BBC. Different creators have been doxxed or harassed mid-stream. When these threats observe them right into a bodily occasion the place everybody is aware of precisely the place they’re, neighborhood turns into publicity.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy does seemingly assume a number of the points are as a result of parasocial relationships on-line, and evidently the creators themselves maintain some accountability for his or her followers.

In fact, Twitch has carried out security measures on its web site, however that usually overshadows the protection measures crucial at an occasion like TwitchCon. One attendee requested Clancy about security at one in every of his Q&As on the final day of TwitchCon. The viewers applauded the query, however not a lot the reply. That is what he stated:

It is actually two separate issues, so first I am going to speak briefly about [safety at TwitchCon]: It’s one thing that we spend a whole lot of time on. Clearly, there are shortcomings and a part of it’s about responding in very particular methods and we have performed that right here in response to what occurred, and so we have to hold doing that.

On-line, I feel that is an space the place we have been investing in for fairly a while. It’s an space that we have to hold investing in. I feel many individuals that use a whole lot of our instruments perceive how the instruments could be useful to guard them. I do assume livestreaming gives some benefits when it comes to the power to regulate your neighborhood, however it’s nonetheless this situation that individuals of all sizes — it is not simply girls, after all, who’ve a problem, but in addition underrepresented teams typically have this downside of harassment on-line.

And it is one thing we care deeply about, and we’re all the time how we proceed to take a position to assist shield creators as they go on their journey.

Clancy additionally stated throughout an interview with journalist Taylor Lorenz that the problem they’re dealing with in the present day “is a problem in in the present day’s society; it is not restricted to Twitch.”

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I do assume that whenever you’re livestreaming, in some ways — because you management your neighborhood and you may ban folks — you may make it in order that these folks that you don’t need partaking with you and taking part with you are not there. It’s totally completely different after I use different short-form content material and other people say all kinds of stuff. Properly, I can not cease that. However after I livestream, they mainly do not hassle me.

Now, what occurred [to Emiru] yesterday clearly was one thing that we care deeply about. We’re trying very carefully at all the pieces occurring there, and I care deeply about [Emiru] — she’s a pal of mine — and so I wish to see how we are able to help her to try this. However that is simply one thing that we are able to hold engaged on.

I feel everybody identifies our instruments, when it comes to belief and security, because the leaders within the trade about serving to creators, however which means there’s all the time extra work to be performed, as a result of that is the world we stay in now.

The fact is, whilst you do rather a lot when it comes to safety, in in the present day’s world there are challenges that may current themselves, particularly when somebody is placing themselves on the market. We attempt to work very carefully with every creator about what they wish to do and what works for them, so I do not wish to get into any specifics or particulars. However a part of that’s working with creators… Proper now, we’re positively ramping it up to verify creators know that we’ve the assets there to assist them work out what’s proper for them.

Why cannot TwitchCon get it proper?

This yr’s conference had loads of safety in place. You needed to stroll via safety to get into the conference heart, together with metallic detectors, and backpacks weren’t permitted. You needed to scan your wristband to get into extra entry factors. As Twitch wrote earlier than the con, there have been “a number of layers of safety, with each seen and behind-the-scenes measures in place.”

“Whereas we do not disclose some safety particulars to take care of the integrity of our operations, attendees can anticipate to see armed and uniformed legislation enforcement presence and different safety personnel all through the venue, together with plainclothes personnel,” Twitch wrote.

And but, nobody stopped the intruder from attacking Emiru.

TwitchCon retains getting security fallacious as a result of the occasion is designed round entry, not safety. Its identification is constructed on proximity. Tightening safety means limiting that entry.

And for some, like streamer FanFan, that extra safety does not essentially equal security. She declined Twitch-provided safety, saying she most well-liked to maneuver independently via the conference. “I do not like being hovered over,” she instructed Mashable. “Yesterday, they assigned private safety to me, and I needed to beg them to let him go away. I do not like feeling like I am being adopted or that I should be watched out for — that if I am going someplace, I’ve to verify in. I wasn’t allowed to stroll again to the resort. I needed to take the non-public automobile, and I did not wish to take the non-public automobile. I simply wished to stroll. I used to be very on edge yesterday.”

As a substitute, she carries what she calls her personal necessities throughout her IRL streams: “I’ve pepper spray, a taser, and a rape whistle. That is all I want. I do not actually do something [special] to maintain myself secure. I type of simply belief my viewers to not be bizarre.”

FanFan’s selection factors to a bigger paradox: Twitch cannot simply repair security with out redefining what entry and autonomy truly imply on its platform. Till then, TwitchCon’s safety will proceed to really feel reactive, not preventive — and extra high-profile streamers might hold opting out.

Extra reporting from Crystal Bell.