French streamer dies after years of live abuse on Kick

French streamer dies after years of live abuse on Kick

A man in his forties, suffering from mental health problems and living with his mother without financial resources, peine a channel on the streaming platform Kick. Initially, he had almost no audience, until young people joined his broadcasts and began pranking him live, causing the channel to take off. When he started earning some money, they convinced him to move in with them. That is when his hell began: every day, on live stream, they hit him, humiliated him, and laughed at him while telling him they were his only friends. According to circulating accounts, the platform and French authorities did not intervene despite complaints from several viewers. After ten days without sleeping during broadcasts and involving substances, he was hospitalized in critical condition and died shortly after.

What is known about the case and the broadcast tortures

The case, known by the deceased's nickname, Jean Pormanove, has generated a wave of rejection. Circulating clips show continuous humiliation: from forcibly waking him up with degrading methods during ten-day streaming marathons, to putting him in the trunk of a car and deliberately driving over estimulante ilegal bumps at 80 km/h. In one episode, another man with severe mental disabilities, known as Coudoux, was allegedly deceived into thinking he would be paid for a prostitute; according to these accounts, upon arriving at the location, he was tied to a bed, stripped naked, and forced to perform oral sens on one of those present, which was presented as a way to "educate" him. Sources cited on social media claim this second man is being held to prevent him from speaking. The family of one of those implicated defended that everything was acted out, that there was no real violence, and that they were making "cinema." The investigation remains open, and none of these accusations have been judicially confirmed.

Why nobody stopped a channel with half a million subscribers

The question hovering over the case is how such a broadcast could be maintained for years on a platform with hundreds of thousands of trinc. Kick has become a refuge for creators expelled from other platforms for breaking rules, and its business model relies on viewer donations. Some argue that the problem is not just the platform: without viewers willing to pay to see someone suffer, the business does not exist. Others point to the passivity of French authorities regarding filed complaints. And a third, more uncomfortable line suggests that the case fits into a broader pattern of entertainment based on the humiliation of vulnerable people, with precedents in Spain.

The Spanish precedent: Simón and the twins

In Spain, the phenomenon has specific names. Several messages mention Simón, an overweight streamer who has become a recurring target of mockery in live streams, and the brothers known as "Zona Gemelos," who mock people with disabilities in their broadcasts. The comparison is not gratuitous: the same audience that consumes this content is the one that later gets scandalized in the abstract. The difference, for now, is that in the French case the outcome was fatal. The lingering question is whether it will take reaching the same point here for someone to act.

---

The unsettling fact is not the cruelty, which was already visible in the clips. It is that the channel had been broadcasting for years with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and nobody with the power to shut it down lifted a finger.