France will sue the Australian streaming platform Kick for alleged negligence after a user died during a livestream, a government minister has said.
The platform has come under scrutiny in France after a 46-year-old Frenchman died earlier this month during a 12-day livestreaming marathon on his channel, which specialised in him enduring abuse or humiliation dished out by other participants.
“Kick did not do everything possible to stop the broadcast of dangerous content,” said the digital affairs minister, Clara Chappaz, accusing the platform of breaking a 2004 law regulating online content.
A postmortem found that the man, Raphael Graven, known online as Jean Pormanove or JP, was not killed by trauma or by someone else.
In a separate announcement on Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said France had opened an investigation into the platform to examine whether Kick had knowingly broadcast “videos of deliberate attacks on personal integrity”.
Clara Chappaz (centre right) attending a meeting with concerned authorities in Paris on Tuesday after the death of Raphael Graven. Photograph: Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images
Investigators will also look at whether the streaming platform complies with the EU Digital Services Act on content moderation. Offenders risk up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to €1m (£864,000).
Kick did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Tuesday’s statement from the Paris prosecutor.
After Graven’s death, Kick Français said it would cooperate with authorities and was reviewing its French content.
“Our priority is to protect creators and ensure a safer environment on Kick,” it wrote on X. “All co-streamers who participated in this live broadcast have been banned pending the ongoing investigation.”
Kick is a livestreaming platform registered in Australia that shares revenue with its content creators.