Twitch users may not be allowed to stream any “Adults Only” rated-games, or any games that contain “overtly sexual content” or “gratuitous violence,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the live streaming service is exactly PG, either. And now one man has filed a civil complaint against Twitch claiming that he’s being exposed to “overly suggestive and sexual content from various female streamers,” to the tune of a whopping $25 million in damages.
The plaintiff, Erik Estavillo, is no stranger to these types of lawsuits, having previously sued Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Blizzard.
According to court documents, Estavillo allegedly suffers from a number of diseases and disorders including OCD, sex addiction, and Crohn’s disease—which causes him to rely “on the internet for all his entertainment purposes.” Due to the number of sexy female streamers on the site and apparent lack of filtering options, Estavillo claims that the platform is causing his conditions to worsen.
Yet, despite these protests, Estavillo is currently following 786 female streamers and exactly zero male streamers.
“Twitch has extremely exacerbated his condition by displaying many sexually suggestive women streamers through Twitch’s twisted programming net code,” reads the complaint. “Making it nearly impossible for the plaintiff to use Twitch without being exposed to such sexual content.”
“Twitch also takes advantage of the plaintiff and many other sexually addicted viewers by allowing them to ‘Subscribe, Donate, or Pay Bits’ to these women streamers,” the complaint continues. “Twitch uses this immediate gratification reward system against their sexually addicted viewers no different than how a Casino would.”
Among the female streamers named in the lawsuit are users Amouranth, Quqco, ST Peach, JadeTheJaguar, Pink_Sparkles, Valeria7K, DanielaAzuage_, lilchipmunk, iaaras2, theRaychul, KrystiPryde, SonjaShio, Gavrilka, MizzyRose, KayPikeFashion, Alinity, QTCinderella, Pokimane, Velvet_7, and Loserfruit—along with respective screenshots and images of the women to prove the “sexually suggestive” nature of their content.
In the official complaint, which was filed in the Superior Court of California on June 15, Estavillo is asking that any damages awarded to be “split between the plaintiff and other Twitch Prime Turbo Subscribers” and that each of the women named in the case is permanently banned from the site. He also asks that any leftover funds be “donated to both COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter” charities of the court’s choosing because clearly he is nothing if not a philanthropist.
In one of his previous lawsuits against Blizzard in 2009, Estavillo sued for “sneaky and deceitful practices” in World of Warcraft for uh, [checks notes] “walking,” as he felt it took too long for players to get from one point in the game universe to another.
He also inexplicably managed to subpoena Depeche Mode and Winona Ryder in that lawsuit, for reasons Kotaku outlined below.
The best part follows: to back up his claims, Estavillo has subpoenaed Winona Ryder (who would presumably be able to “explain the significance of alienation in Catcher in the Rye”) and Martin Lee Gore, of Depeche Mode (“he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated as can be seen in the songs he writes”).
Given his extensive and thoroughly questionable litigious history, it seems unlikely that Estavillo will get very far with this new lawsuit, but probably just enough to cause a headache for Twitch.
To that point, in a statement to the Daily Dot, Twitch commented: “These claims are frivolous and have absolutely no merit.”
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