The assault of a popular cosplayer at Twitch’s annual livestreaming convention has intensified concerns about seemingly lackluster safety protocols at TwitchCon.
On Friday, the first of the three-day convention in San Diego, videos circulated online of a man walking up to the streamer Emiru at a meet-and-greet and appearing to grab her for a kiss as she tries to push him away. Her security guard quickly intervenes and drives the man away.
Popular cosplayer Emily-Beth Schunk, 27, known online as Emiru, has nearly 2 million followers on Twitch, where she streams gaming, cosplay and other variety content. She is also a co-owner and content creator for the gaming media production brand One True King.
To many fans online, her assault validated long-running fears about streamer safety at in-person events, particularly scheduled meet-and-greets where fans know exactly where a particular creator will be ahead of time. Some streamers online claimed they canceled their meet-and-greets or skipped this year’s TwitchCon altogether because of existing concerns about security, while others said they plan to shun future TwitchCons in solidarity with Emiru.
Some online further pointed to the longtime culture of toxicity against women in gaming communities, including on platforms like Twitch, where female streamers have often been subjected to sexual harassment by users who watch their streams. Twitch has tried to crack down on such behavior in recent years.
After Friday’s assault, Emiru blasted Twitch for the way event organizers handled the situation, writing in a statement on X that the man “was allowed to cross multiple barriers at twitchcon and even in front of another creators meet and greet to grab me and my face and try to kiss me.” Only her personal security guard stepped in, she wrote, while multiple Twitchcon security staff members “did not react and let the guy walk away.”
Twitch responded in a statement on X that the convention has increased security at the meet-and-greet attendee check-in point, that it will no longer accommodate plus-ones and that it has added security personnel around participating streamers.
“In line with existing TwitchCon security protocols, law enforcement and event security were on site and responded to the incident,” Twitch wrote. “We immediately blocked this individual from returning to the TwitchCon premises, and they are banned indefinitely from Twitch, both online and in-person events.”
Emiru, however, called Twitch’s response “a blatant lie,” writing in her statement that her assailant was not “immediately” caught or detained.
“He was allowed to walk away from my meet and greet and I didn’t hear he was caught until hours after he attacked me,” she wrote, “and it felt like this only happened because of my manager pressing for it, not because Twitchcon staff present thought it was a big deal.”
She added in a video that her manager contacted police shortly after the incident and that she plans to press charges “at the bare minimum.” She also said Twitch had planned to suspend the man from the platform for 30 days before it decided on an indefinite ban after she pushed back.
Representatives for Twitch and Emiru did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment. The San Diego Police Department confirmed that on Friday afternoon, a man was reported grabbing a woman’s shoulders and attempting to kiss her during a meet-and-greet at TwitchCon.
“Security intervened and removed the male who fled the area,” a police department spokesperson told NBC News in a statement. “San Diego Police officers responded to the incident, but no arrests have been made at this time.”
The incident comes a month after some of the platform’s biggest female streamers shared their fears about safety at TwitchCon, especially in the wake of heightened political tensions online and in real life, and after Japanese streamer Airi Sato was stabbed to death by a viewer while livestreaming on a Japanese platform this year.
Before this year’s convention, Valkyrae and QTCinderella decided to cancel the live TwitchCon recording of their podcast, “Wine About It,” and Pokimane also pulled out of the convention after she expressed her own hesitations.
“I don’t feel irrational about it. I feel very scared,” QTCinderella said on a podcast episode last month. Valkyrae echoed her concerns, saying that “it just takes one person.” In a separate livestream, Pokimane noted that “if we were to have any sort of safety issues, they’re most likely to occur somewhere where people know we’re going to be.”
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy responded at the time that Twitch takes security at its events “extremely seriously.”
After Emiru was assaulted Friday, Valkyrae responded on X that “it’s awful that twitchcon safety concerns were an issue even before the event but they still didn’t take it seriously.” Pokimane similarly wrote that she “hope[s] this pushes twitch to finally take our concerns seriously.”
Asked about the situation in an interview Saturday with independent journalist Taylor Lorenz, Clancy said there’s “always more work to be done” around trust and safety.
“The reality is even if you do a lot in terms of security in today’s world, there are challenges that can present themselves, especially when someone is putting themselves out there,” he said.
Natanya Faitelson contributed.
