French streamer frequently ‘humiliated and mistreated’ on-air dies in sleep during livestream marathon

A French streamer who was often “humiliated and mistreated” by a group of other men live on camera for thousands of viewers died in his sleep during a 10-day livestream marathon Monday.

Raphaël Graven, known online as Jeanpormanove, was found dead in an apartment he was renting in France. The 46-year-old’s death was confirmed by Owen Cenazandotti, a fellow streamer, in a post on Instagram.

“I ask you all to respect his memory and not share the video of his last breath in his sleep. 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,” Cenazandotti wrote in a translated post to his Instagram story.

Graven’s last breath was apparently captured during a since-deleted 10-day marathon livestream — which wasn’t uncommon for the streamer and his partners who are best known for their gaming content and extreme challenges that often featured Graven as the butt of the joke.

In the livestream, Graven lay prone on a mattress almost completely covered by the duvet. While the other streamers started to wake up around him, they noticed he was “in a really weird position” and tried to get his attention before abruptly cutting the livestream, Le Parisien reported.

The city of Nice’s prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into Graven’s cause of death and ordered an autopsy, but noted “nothing suspicious” so far, the outlet reported.

French government minister Clara Chappaz said the violence a “humiliated and mistreated” Graven often endured during livestreams was an “absolute horror.”

Past livestream clips reshared online show the other men hitting, strangling and shooting Graven with a paintball gun.

“The responsibility of online platforms regarding the dissemination of illicit content is not optional: it is the law. This type of failure can lead to the worst and has no place in France, Europe, or anywhere else,” Chappaz wrote on X.

She referred the situation to the French media regulator Arcom and Pharos, another French system used to report online content.

Kick, the platform Graven streamed on, is also “urgently reviewing” the circumstances surrounding Graven’s filmed death — including its own community guidelines.

The platform, which is similar to Twitch, has guidelines “designed to protect creators” and insisted that it was “committed to upholding these standards across our platform,” a spokesperson told BBC.

Kick specifically prohibits streamers from featuring anything that “contains self-harm or excessive violence” and “illegal content or content in furtherance of harmful or illegal activities,” according to its terms of service.

In December, Graven and fellow streamer Safine Hamadi were taken into custody after a bombshell investigation into Kick alleged that it had permitted creators to broadcast violent content unchecked for months. The pair denied any wrongdoing and were quickly released, Le Parisien reported.

Popular American streamer Adin Ross and rapper Drake, who serve as ambassadors for Kick, said they will be covering the costs of Graven’s funeral.

“This is horrible and disgusting. Whoever was apart [sic] of this deserves to face severe consequences. I just spoke with drake. Drake and I will be covering the funeral costs , this won’t bring his life back, it’s the least we can do. Prayers go out to Jean’s family,” Ross wrote on X.