Summary
- Kick streamer Vitaly Zdorovetskiy was arrested in the Philippines for harassing people during a prank stream.
- Vitaly faces deportation for his actions.
- The creator’s Kick channel has also been taken down.
Kick streamer Vitaly Zdorovetskiy was arrested in the Philippines after harassing people on the street during a prank stream. The creator is known on Kick for his gambling streams, a category that is prohibited on Twitch, and prank-based content that has gotten him in hot water from time to time.
Vitaly flew to the Philippines in late March, starting in Boracay, where he did IRL Kick streams and shot content for social media. At one point, he visited the Ati people, an indigenous tribe living on Boracay’s islands, to donate money to them. It’s not uncommon for Kick and Twitch creators to do charity streams for various communities and causes, and Vitaly was praised for paying it forward. Meanwhile, Vitaly continued to shoot content in a number of cities across Metro Manila, including a prank stream that went horribly wrong.
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On April 1, Vitaly did an IRL stream in which he “disturbed the peace” of Filipinos around a mall in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. One viral clip shows him approaching a woman and threatening to rob her, and later, he steals a security guard’s cap. The following day, Vitaly was arrested and is currently being held in the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) detention center, where he awaits deportation proceedings. BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado emphasized that “harassment and disruptive behavior have no place in our society,” and that there will be consequences for people who disrespect the laws of the country. This wouldn’t be the first time a content creator has been arrested for making prank content or disrupting the peace in public, with the likes of Johnny Somali getting in trouble multiple times for harassing South Koreans.
Vitaly’s Kick Channel Is Down Following Prank Stream
Apart from facing deportation from the Philippines, Vitaly is now classified as an “undesirable foreign national” in the country, meaning he committed acts punishable by imprisonment for one year or more. The two guards that the streamer harassed also filed unjust vexation cases against him. Shortly after his controversial stream, Vitaly’s Kick channel also went down, either because people reported his account or the platform suspended him due to his actions. The latter is likely, as Kick states in Guideline 13 of its Community Guidelines, “Creators should be aware of the local laws regarding livestreaming.” Kick previously banned Jack Doherty for violating the guidelines on violence as well, so the platform seems to be strict. Meanwhile, his YouTube channel, where he has over 10 million subscribers, is still up and running, but his last uploaded video was around two weeks ago.
Many streamers and content creators have dealt with serious consequences for making videos that offend people on purpose. At the same time, some creators like IShowSpeed also paid for damages caused by fans during a stream. This has sparked discussions about the safety of both creators, especially those who do IRL streams, and the people involved in supposedly innocent pranks.