Twitch banned streamer Brad “BlessRNG” Jolly today and removed his popular BlessRNG emote after admitting to abusing an ex-girlfriend.
The streamer’s misconduct came to light when an anonymous person reported the abuse to Kanga, Jolly’s employer. Kanga fired Jolly and said in a statement, “The company did not have prior knowledge of the situation and, upon learning, we are deeply sorry to anyone in our community who was affected by this hire. Brad’s actions are unacceptable and do not reflect our culture nor support our mission to build the best products and community in gaming.”
Although Jolly did not deny the claims of misconduct, he did publish a lengthy response, in which he argued that the other person in the relationship was also abusive to him, a response which was received negatively on Twitter.
Twitch streamer Crasskitty, who has knowledge of the situation, said Jolly had admitted to them that he was guilty.
“This pissed me off because I am friends with the victim you are portraying as an abuser, and because I spent literal days trying to get you to stop violating her.” The user then linked screenshots of a conversation which she had with Jolly, in which it appears Jolly repeatedly contacted the victim after she requested he not do that.
Jolly also published a more direct apology on Wednesday, in which he said, “I regret my actions more than anything. There is no excuse, and there never should be an excuse for such things. I have changed and must keep changing. The industry also has to change.”
Jolly’s ban is one of the first in what is expected to be many coming down from Twitch in response to hundreds of allegations, which have been leveled at various online influencers over the past couple of weeks.
After years of inaction, it appears that Twitch has finally been pressured into taking action against the abusers on their platform.
