Police in France are investigating the death of Raphaël Graven, known as Jean Pormanove or JP, who died online after he was constantly attacked and humiliated by fellow streamers over a live broadcast of more than 10 days.
Graven died during the night of August 17 to 18. At the time, the camera had already been streaming live for 298 hours.
He was deprived of sleep, forced to eat things, spat on, strangled and many other forms of mistreatment, all in the name of “humour” and “entertainment”.
Families of the abusers admitted it was trashy but claimed it was all “a giant play”.
A judicial investigation into the causes of his death was launched by the Nice public prosecutor’s office.
Moments before the stream was cut, a person was seen throwing a bottle of water at the 46-years-old’s lifeless body, apparently believing he was merely asleep. By then, though, Graven had already been dead for almost an hour.
Graven was a live streamer on the Australian platform Kick, a service where the biggest group of creators show gaming content and e-sports, including by prominent figures and even chess players.
Other videos are also shared and content moderation is lenient, where creators have shown a tendency to be more edgy and produce controversial videos as they receive 95 per cent of the revenue.
In this case, people paid for the spectacle of seeing Graven humiliated and being beaten up, with some viewers even paying for the privilege of instructing some of the violence aimed at him.
Graven was the target of alleged relentless harassment, humiliation and actual physical abuse by his two partners, known as “Naruto” and “Safine”.
This apparent abuse was already flagged in France, with the left-wing investigative media outlet Mediapart reporting in December 2024 on the situation and the disturbing and dystopian commercial entertainment model behind it which incentives were allegedly given for the mistreatment of the now deceased Graven.
The streamers allegedly earned €13,000 in a month on their streams from showing them.
In January 2025, the police opened an investigation for “public provocation by a means of electronic communication to hatred or violence against a person or a group of people on account of their disability”, “intentional violence in a group against vulnerable persons resulting in a total incapacity for work of less than eight days” and “dissemination of image recordings relating to the commission of offences of intentional attacks on the integrity of the person”.
Both the alleged culprits and the victim denied that anything wrong had happened at the time but the investigation was still ongoing when Graven died.
On January 8, the police took the two alleged abusers into custody and seized a computer and audiovisual equipment but the two men were soon after released. One of them reportedly was the sole owner of the company behind the streams.
They declined to comment to the media and said they were waiting for the results of the investigation into the circumstances of Graven’s death.
On his Instagram, the man allegedly behind the channel posted: “My brother, my sidekick, my partner. Six years side by side, without ever letting go, I love you my brother and we will miss you terribly.”
The other man posted: “Rest in peace my brother.”
[TW violences physiques et psychologiques]
« Bataille de Cotoreps » : sur la plateforme Kick, des humiliations et violences en direct pour des cartons d’audience
Enquête vidéo à voir en intégralité sur Mediapart 👉 https://t.co/pe8Os8plZa pic.twitter.com/aqJT2KyGKY
— Mediapart (@Mediapart) December 15, 2024
In another, older video, which resurfaced after the streamer passed away, both men can be allegedly heard explicitly considering his death on air and urged him to say: “In front of the camera, right now, that, if tomorrow he dies in the middle of a live broadcast, it’s due to his shitty state of health and not to [them].
“People are going to come after us, even though it’s due to your forty-six years of shabby life,” the company owner allegedly added .
“If something happens to me live, it’s my sole responsibility,” Graven finally declared, after initially refusing to do so.
The former soldier had half a million of subscribers on Kick, which earned him a living.
He began his online career on TikTok, where he created humorous videos and gaming content centred around popular titles such as FIFA, Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) and Fortnite. He quickly amassed a substantial following.
His content was characterised by an explosive and interactive style, often featuring moments of extreme rage and absurd challenges that resonated with his audience
At the end of the long live broadcast marked by the Graven’s death, a counter on the video suggested that more than than €36,000 had been raised, news outlet Le Monde reported.
On the channel, he appeared with two alleged abusers and another victim,”Coudoux”, a person with a disability.
It had been banned from Kick twice before, once after a Nazi-salute on air and another time after violent slapping scenes were shown.
The French Government and oversight organisations, such as Arcom, allegedly failed to act accordingly nor protect the streamer in any meaningful way, experts said.
France’s digital minister Clara Chappaz on X on August 19 described the case as an “absolute horror”.
She said there was already an investigation ongoing into the matter, spurred on by earlier reporting, adding that a a second investigation had been opened to clarify the circumstances of Graven’s death.
Chappaz added that platforms had a duty to remove clearly illegal content and the wider public had the obligation to report such things also.
She had not replied to media inquiries in December.
The alleged failure to act by the French Government happened while the country has been aggressive against messaging app Telegram over alleged speech violations, and against X, for similar reasons, something many have seen as politically motivated.
The same was true for Arcom, which has been quick to go after Conservative media, but allegedly failed to act to protect vulnerable people in danger.
Concernant les dérives constatées sur la chaîne «Jeanpormanove» sur Kick en décembre 2024, une enquête est en cours sur les agissements présumés des streamers depuis les signalements de Mediapart, menée par le service de police judiciaire de Nice sous différents chefs…
— Clara Chappaz (@ClaraChappaz) August 20, 2025
In a reaction to the events, Kick said the company was “deeply saddened” by the streamer’s death and that it would investigate what happened.
It said it was firmly committed to protecting streamers.
The company is owned by the people behind betting website Stake.com and wants to distinguish itself from its main competitor Twitch by offering higher remunerations to its content creators. It regularly stirs up controversy, embracing people and behaviour banned elsewhere, including nudity, vulgarity and gambling.
Rapper Drake and streamer Adin Ross, important partners of the owners of kick, said they would pay for Graven’s funeral.
