Twitch streamer and internet personality Pokimane posted across her scoal media today announcing that she will be taking a one month break from streaming.
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Originally tweeted by pokimane (@pokimanelol) on August 5, 2020.
In the post Pokimane states that since quarantine she has not been able to travel as much and that she misses visiting with her family and attending conventions. She cites this as a reason that she has been losing motivation for streaming, and that she has decided to take her first one month break in 6 years.
This break comes at a time where the streamer has been embroiled in controversy. Videos from various YouTubers have come out blasting Pokimane for abusing the YouTube copyright system to take down videos that criticize her. She has also been accused of taking advantage of her subs after stories surfaced of people so desperate to have a relationship with the streamer that they would give up rent and food money impoverishing themselves to donate to the streamer.
The controversy reignited when YouTuber Leafyishere released a “ content nuke “ video. The video criticized Pokimane for her hypocrisy in taking down videos of her critics under the reasoning that their videos aren’t transformative, when she herself often streams herself just watching internet videos not adding any transformative value herself. The video ended with the revelation that Pokimane has a boyfriend, which resulted in #PokimaneBoyfriend trending on Twitter. Over the past week Pokimane has seen a significant dip in subscribers which many are attributing to the news that Pokimane has a boyfriend, which she has been careful not to reveal online, citing that she had decided a long time ago to keep that personal information secret.
Pokimane had recently made a Twitter post claiming that the games industry is sexist and that women are not forgiven fore mistakes as easily as men are. This was immediately called out as hypocritical coming off the heels of Fedmyster being roundly cancelled by the internet, while streamers like Alinity have never been cancelled for things like abusing her pets live on stream. Pokimane herself had been given passes by Twitch staff for her past f requent use of the N-word on social media and even on stream, as well as an incident where she accidentally played a porn video on stream.
There’s no doubt that this swelling controversy has played a role in Pokimane’s decision to take a break from streaming. She is likely banking that after a month the controversy will die down and she can return to streaming with an audience that has hopefully grown fonder in her absence. At this time it is assumed that Pokimane will still be present on other streams like Offline TV, and guest spots on other channels, so we will very likely still see a lot of the streamer during this break. Whatever the case, hopefully the break provides Pokimane with the mental refresh she needs so she can return to streaming feeling her best.
Originally published at http://gametama.wordpress.com on August 5, 2020.
