Ice Poseidon Reveals The Tragic Results Of Viewer Harassment
Paul "Ice Poseidon" Denino used to be one of the most popular IRL streamers on Twitch until a swatting incident forced him off the platform. In a recent documentary created by Dexerto, Denino spoke about the dangers of streaming and the horrific incidents he came across, such as a homeless man bleeding out in public. However, swatting left the greatest mark on his psyche.
Swatting involves making a false report with the hope of prompting the dispatch of emergency services or law enforcement to a specific location. This might seem like merely an annoyance; however, when it's disguised as serious emergencies involving domestic terrorism or bomb threats, it can turn deadly. Armed police may arrive at the targeted address (often a person's house) on high alert and even ready to shoot.
"I think I got swatted every single day for a year. Multiple times a day. One time, a SWAT team came to my house three times in like four hours," Denino said. Even if called to his place multiple times, the police allegedly insisted that they had to follow up on every report. In a clip shown during the documentary, Denino witnessed an officer cocking a shotgun as he left his home. Fear of the potential consequences of this form of harassments became a constant presence in his mind.
Ice Poseidon experienced PTSD from constant harassment
Part of Denino's fear came from not knowing if he would die because of a misunderstanding or an unhinged viewer. He once received a threat from a viewer who claimed he would come to Denino's house to shoot him. Incidents like these, along with swatting, made it difficult for him to feel safe. "I had real PTSD of getting shot all the time," he told Dexerto. "It took me a while to get over that. I could not keep my back to a window. I would think somebody's gonna shoot me through my window in my house."
In one of the most serious incidents, someone posed as the streamer and called in a bomb threat while the real Denino boarded a plane. Police escorted him off the aircraft and he made national news (via Vice) because of the swatting. Twitch later banned him from the platform. Since then, he has appealed to Twitch to get his account back but has been denied.
After Twitch dropped him, Denino migrated to YouTube before moving to Mixer and then back to YouTube when Mixer shut down. He lost most of his viewer base as a result, though his involvement with the CxCoin scheme likely hasn't helped matters either.