American man who sued Twitch for $25mn over “sexual content” denied by court

pokimane

California man Erik Estavillo made it to the headlines back in June when he filed a legal complaint against popular streaming platform Twitch for exposing him and other viewers, some of whom are unferage, to “suggestive” female streamers showing “sexual content” on stream which is otherwise against the Twitch ToS.

In his complaint, Estavillo claimed to be suffering from “depression, OCD, panic disorder, Agoraphobia and Crohn’s disease.” He also claimed to suffer from sex addiction, which, according to him is a result of his OCD. These medical issues make him rely solely on the internet for his entertainment and according to the complaint, Twitch had “extremely exacerbated” his medical conditions “by displaying many sexually suggestive women streamers through Twitch’s twisted programming and net code.”

The complaint listed some female streamers who, according to Estavillo, violated the Twitch ToS by showing “sexual content” on stream. He also attached some “sexual” images of those streamers taken from their streams and social media handles. The list of female streamers include:

  • Amouranth
  • Quqco
  • ST Peach
  • JadeTheJaguar
  • Pink_Sparkles
  • Valeria7K
  • DanielaAzuage_
  • lilchipmunk
  • iaaras2
  • theRaychul
  • KrystiPryde
  • SonjaShio
  • Gavrilka
  • MizzyRose
  • KayPikeFashion
  • Alinity
  • QTCinderella
  • Pokimane
  • Velvet_7
  • Loserfruit

As compensation, Estavillo demanded a sum of $25,000,000 from the streaming platform. He wanted the money to be distributed between him and other Twitch Prime subscribers with the leftovers going to COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter charities.

After the news surfaced, many were in doubt on how far this absurd lawsuit would proceed when brought to the court. Now, it seems like we have our answer – not very far.

In a tentative ruling by the court, the judge denies Estavillo’s claim against Twitch. “Plaintiff’s complaint fails to identify or state any cognizable claim or cause of action under California law,” the ruling states.”The ‘exhibits’ submitted by Plaintiff with his opposition also do not identify, much less support, any claims under California law.“

The judge also accepted the motion made by the Twitch lawyers to dismiss the case. Furthermore, Estavillo can’t choose to pursue this case further or bring this case back to the court, as stated by the judge.

However, according to some reports, Estavillo has said that he plans to appeal this ruling to the 6th District Court of Appeals. It’s unclear if the results will be any different, though.