IShowSpeed will not be punished by YouTube after exposing his penis during an August 16 live stream. After being jump scared by the character Chica in Five Nights At Freddy's, Speed screamed dramatically before yelling “I wanna fuck you, Chica. Get this dick right up in you, baby.” He proceeded to jump and down, dislodging his penis from his shorts and causing it to be clearly seen on camera. Speed appeared to realize what had happened after seeing the playback on his second monitor. "Oh my God," the 22-year-old can be heard saying before abruptly ending his stream.
Unintentional or not, the incident was a very clear breach of YouTube's terms of service. Among the major streaming platforms, YouTube has perhaps the strictest policies regarding sexual content. Despite this, YouTube confirmed to TMZ that Speed had removed the video archive of the incident and would not be issuing a ban at this time. Many believe that this is in order to retain Speed, one of the platform's biggest stars, and prevent him from leaving for a platform like Kick. While Kick is much more lenient about its streamers' content, it still holds some policies on sexual content. Adin Ross was recently temporarily suspended after showing explicitly sexual content during one of his streams.
Did YouTube Bend The Rules For IShowSpeed?
While Speed's mishap appears unintentional, it has now become a case study in what major platforms will do to retain their streaming talent. YouTube has previously faced criticism on multiple occasions for deliberately age-restricting content about LGBTQ topics. However, they are reportedly willing to give Speed a total pass for exposing his penis on stream. Again, while unintentional, he exposed his penis to his primarily underage audience. There were 25,000 people watching Speed at the time of his incident.
Speed is yet to make a formal statement about the incident at the time of writing. However, if TMZ's report turns out to be accurate, then he just scored a major win. Furthermore, he may have just set a dangerous precedent. YouTube can no longer ban sexual content indiscriminately. If you can make the argument that it was "accidental", then YouTube can't ban you else they would be openly showing that they have one set of rules for their profitable talent and another set of rules for everyone else. This remains a developing story and we'll have any updates if and when they come through.
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