IShowSpeed ‘still playing’ charity match subject to medical checks, Sidemen member confirms
Sidemen member Simon “Miniminter” Minter has confirmed popular YouTube streamer IShowSpeed (real name Darren Watkins Jr.) will play next month’s charity match at the London Stadium – provided he faces no medical issues which prevent him from playing. Fears were mounting that Speed would be forced to pull out of the fundraiser as the streamer – who has more than 19 million subscribers on YouTube – continues to recover from a sinus infection from which he said he “almost died” and caused a “deadly headache”. The 18-year-old ended up in hospital over the health scare, with fans showing up outside the building in Tokyo to show their support. In a stream on Tuesday, Watkins said of the crisis: “I literally had the worst-ever sinus infection. It got super, super bad, and the sinus infection was causing cluster headaches. “I pray none of y’all in the chat experience a cluster headache … That’s the one that almost killed me - that’s the one that almost got me. “I went through so much. I’m still healing.” He also added that his doctors “are telling me a whole different story right now” as to whether he’ll be well enough to join the kickabout. And in this very same week, Speed avoided a ban from YouTube after accidentally exposing his penis to fans while streaming him playing hit video game Five Nights at Freddy’s. “Oh my God,” he said, before immediately shutting the stream down. The incident, combined with his recent health issues, led to concerns over whether his appearance at the charity match would still happen - and these only went into overdrive when fans spotted the Sidemen had deleted their tweet announcing Speed would be on the pitch: Thankfully, Minter was on hand to reassure fans and ticketholders, telling his audience on Twitch that Speed is still playing on 9 September “as long as he’s OK with the medical stuff he had before”. “The reason [the tweet] got deleted is because there was some question on whether he’d be able to fly, but yeah, he is [playing],” he added. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-21 23:48
Post Malone and Joe Rogan call the NPC TikTok trend 'crazy' and 'strange'
Post Malone and Joe Rogan discussed the rise of the NPC streams on TikTok, calling the trend "crazy" and "so strange." During an appearance on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, Post Malone brought up the topic of the NPC trend after Rogan commented on the fact that people “watch a lot of s*** they hate". The NPC trend is where the streamers appear animated through their actions, hence being comparable to gaming NPCs, where they often repeat their movements or sayings. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Streamers will only interact, speak or perform a specific action when they receive a gift from a viewer. One of the most popular NPC streamers is Pinkydoll, who is known for her catchphrase "Ice cream, so good!" when gifted an ice cream emoji in her streams. @kiki_saysso New trend? Should I try it? credit: @pinkydollreal #pinkydoll #ai #npctrend #viral #tiktoksensation #livestream The Sunflower singer quoted this Pinkydoll's catchphrase to Rogan when explaining the trend. "I'm like wow, this is kind of crazy," Post said. To which Rogan asked if Pinkydoll ever breaks character as Post recalled a time he watched one of her streams where she did. The pair then watched one of the TikToker's most viral videos and in response, Rogan described it as "so strange". "But she is really hot and that helps," the podcaster added. "That’s why that works. Let’s not pretend. Like if she was gross, like that lady is beautiful. "So, when she does that, people are like. What is she? I’ll get her to lick her lips like, $7000 a day. That’s not bad.” Elsewhere, Rogan was recently 'perplexed' at men's 'appalling' backlash to Barbie movie. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-11 22:23
Who is Kai Cenat, the influencer at the centre of New York City mayhem?
The streamer and social media influencer Kai Cenat is at the centre of mayhem that erupted in New York City's Union Square on Friday after he announced that he would be giving away Playstation 5 consoles. Cenat and fellow streamer Fanum had teased the giveaway to their millions of followers on Instagram, that it was scheduled to take place at 4pm. However, a mass crowd, estimated to be around 2000 people arrived on the scene leading to unsavoury scenes which resulted in the injuries of a reported 12 people. Fighting and the throwing of fire extinguishers were also reported with two people being arrested. Some revelers also climbed on the roof of Union Square station. On a live stream at the event, Cenat could be heard saying: "Look at this! hey standing like in f*****g unity, bro." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He also added: "Everybody for themselves, it's a war out there man." Cenat had also teased that items such as gaming PCs, gift cards and gaming Chairs would be given away at the event. Amid the chaos it has been reported that Cenat was placed into law enforcement custody as confirmed by the New York Police Department. Who is Kai Cenat? 21-year-old Cenat, real name Kai Carlo Cenat III, was born in New York in December 2001. He is one of the most popular streamers and influencers on the internet today. He is the most subscribed to Twitch streamer ever with more than 300,000 at his peak in February 2023. He also has more than 6 million followers on Instagram and more than 4 million subscribers on YouTube. Most of his content revolves around video games, comedy and pranks. He is said to have a net worth of around $12 million. In May he was named as one of Rolling Stone magazine's most influential people on social media. In the prior month he was temporarily banned from Twitch for reportedly violating the platform's rules. Also in May, he and fellow streamer iShowSpeed signed a lucrative deal with rival platform Rumble to produce a handful of livestreams a month. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-05 05:49
Why is MrBeast teasing a ‘protest’ amid a Twitch policy controversy?
Not long after being embroiled in controversy himself over a video in which he helped 1,000 people “hear for the first time”, MrBeast - real name Jimmy Donaldson – has waded into the outcry over the latest divisive policy decision from the streaming platform Twitch. On Tuesday, the company updated its policy around branded and sponsored content, in which it set the incredibly specific limit of no more than three per cent of a screen size featuring a brand’s logo or overlay. A ban on ‘burned-in’ adverts embedded into streams is another rule which will come into effect on 1 July. Twitch was already facing a significant backlash over how it splits payments for channel subscriptions, which is currently 50/50, as well as its decision to charge a $25 maintenance fee to terminate an affiliate contract. Given just how limiting three per cent is as a percentage, and in terms of screen size, many Twitch streamers voiced their frustration with the planned change, mocking how the site would even enforce such a policy and how they would avoid going over the threshold: Eventually, Twitch issued a statement on Twitter, in which the organisation admitted the updated policy was “overly broad” and “created confusion and frustration”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It reads: “We do not intend to limit streamers’ ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors, and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers earn revenue. “We wanted to clarify our existing ads policy that was intended to prohibit third party ad networks from selling burned in video and display ads on Twitch, which is consistent with other services. “We missed the mark with the policy language and will rewrite the guidelines to be clearer. Thank you for sharing your concerns, and we appreciate the feedback. We’ll notify the community once we have updated the language.” YouTuber and streamer Sean “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin and rival streaming service Kick were among those who criticised the climbdown: And speaking of Kick – the platform on which Drake streamed himself getting a card declined – this is where MrBeast comes in, as a Twitter account promoting streams on Kick noticed the 158m subscriber strong YouTuber had followed them. Donaldson replied: “Might do a stream for fun just to protest Twitch lol.” Even Elon Musk, of all people, was on board with the idea, simply tweeting Donaldson to say “great!” In a separate tweet – since deleted – MrBeast wrote: “This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all year. I’m not even a Twitch streamer and now I want to stream on a competitor now [sic] just to spite them for you guys lol. “If YouTube pulled this s*** I’d lose my mind.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-06-07 19:25
Drake tried to donate $500 on a Kick livestream - only for his card to get declined
'One Dance' rapper Drake – real name Aubrey Graham – was left in an awkward situation on Saturday, when the musician with a reported net worth of around $250m (£200.7m) tried to donate just short of $500 to an online streamer, only for his VISA card to be declined. Graham was hosting a livestream when the incident occurred, over on the platform Kick - which seeks to rival popular streaming site Twitch. The stream itself was to promote the online cryptocurrency casino Stake, and it was when Drake wanted to gift $499.99 in subscribers to a streamer known only as Daisy that he experienced some problems. And it all unfolded while Daisy was broadcasting herself getting a foot massage. As you do. After entering a verification code to authorise the purchase, the dialogue box disappeared to show the payment hadn’t in fact gone through and Drake would have to try and pay again. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Embarrassing,” said Graham in a high-pitched, sing-song voice, as fellow rapper Lil Yachty smiled at the mishap next to him. Given Drake’s aforementioned net worth, it’s unlikely the musician himself is in any financial difficulty, and after looking at someone off-camera and being made aware of the situation, it wasn’t long before the card issue was resolved and he was back to splashing the cash. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the blunder from going viral on social media, as some were left shocked by how he said the word “embarrassing”, apparently: Others also noticed Drake was sporting fingernails with yellow nail varnish, with Marca reporting that UFC athlete Israel Adesanya - one of the artist’s favourite sportsmen to bet on – paints his fingernails as well. Well, at least Drake’s getting his card declined in style… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-06-05 00:29
PewDiePie banned on Twitch despite not even streaming
Internet sensation PewDiePie has been hit with a mysterious Twitch ban – despite not even streaming. The Swedish influencer signed an exclusive deal with YouTube in 2020. However, a random stream appeared on PewDiePie's Twitch account in March, showing old videos and episodes of the Canadian comedy series Trailer Park Boys. PewDiePie's 'return' to the streaming platform left fans scratching their heads, with some speculating it to be a promotion for an upcoming project. Others believed his account was hacked. Dexerto later reported that CoPilotMedia appeared to have taken over the streamer's Twitch channel. Now, PewDiePie's Twitch account has been officially removed from the platform – and people aren't sure why. Instead, Twitch fans are greeted with a notice that reads: "This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It comes after the 33-year-old announced he and his wife, Marzia Bisognin, were expecting a baby. In a February YouTube video shared on PewDiePie's 111 million subscriber-strong channel, the influencer said: "I’ve been keeping a secret from you guys, and that is I’m going to be a dad. "We found out that Marzia is pregnant first in November, and I’m just so thankful everything’s been going so well so far. "I’m so excited. It’s kind of strange to me, it’s entering new territory, but I feel really ready, and so does Marzia.” He added he feels "so lucky" to start a family "with the woman I love", going on to say that he has "absolutely no doubt" that Marzia will be "an amazing mother". Indy100 reached out to Twitch for comment. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-05-10 15:50
From Wordle to ‘Wakanda Forever’: Here Are Google’s Top Search Trends of 2022
Betty White was a bigger trending search this year than Queen Elizabeth II.
2023-04-10 15:38