2 Kick creators hired a sex worker for a 'creepy' livestreamed encounter, prompting a major backlash

• Ice Poseidon and Sam Pepper hired a sex worker for a stranger for $500 and streamed it.
• The woman left in the middle of the recording, calling the situation "creepy."

The streaming platform Kick is facing backlash after two creators hired a sex worker for a third man and livestreamed the encounter.

Paul Denino, better known by his online alias Ice Poseidon, and fellow creator Sam Pepper hired the escort for $500 while on a trip to Brisbane, Australia.

The two hid in a hotel suite as the man began the encounter with the woman, but she said it felt "creepy" and left.

Many viewers found the stream repulsive, and criticized Kick for seeming to edorse it, especially as the platform's cofounder seemed to be watching the stream.

The video begins with Denino and Pepper asking the woman over the phone if she was happy to be filmed, and she said she was for an extra fee.

The escort arrived at the hotel room, where a man named Andy — who Denino and Pepper seemed to meet on the street earlier that night — was waiting.

Cameras were set up, pointed at the sofa, so viewers could watch everything that unfolded. In a video Denino posted after the event, Andy pointed the camera out to the woman, who again consented to being filmed.

After a few minutes of talking, Andy and the escort seem to be moving to the bedroom. There was another camera set up in the bedroom, but it's unclear whether the woman knew about it.

The woman then received a message on her phone from a friend, telling her it was a "set up" and that two more men were in the apartment hiding. This appeared to make her uncomfortable, and she put her shoes back on and got ready to leave.

Andy then blocks her from leaving, telling her she had already been paid.

"This is creepy," she said, and tried to leave again.

"Why is it creepy?" Andy asked. He then told her it was just "you and me" — even though Denino and Pepper were in the next room.

The woman then opens the door to leave again, and Andy follows her out, demanding a refund.

The issue viewers have taken with the stream is not that it was illegal, but they believed it to be immoral. (Regulated prostitution is legal in Queensland, Australia.)

Gaming influencer Jake Lucky shared a screenshot of the livestream, saying there were around 20,000 viewers at one point. He said watching it back, it was clear "how unbelievably uncomfortable" the woman was.

"This content is so weird and disgusting," he said. "It's a shame this is what's popping on Kick."

Another creator named MsSavage, who streams on Kick, said she had personally had positive experiences on the platform, but this was "not okay."

"I do not stand by this kind of content and watching this made me feel so uncomfortable," she said. "Point blank: Kick dropped the ball on this one and action needs to be taken immediately."

YouTuber Mutahar Anas, of the popular gaming channel SomeOrdinaryGamers, also called the stunt "fucking gross."

Denino responded to Anas, sharing the video where Andy pointed out the camera to the escort. The clip also showed Denino telling Andy he shouldn't have tried to stop her from leaving.

"If you would have stood there for a second longer, I was about to fly out of the room and just try to resolve everything," Denino said.

"Don't really know what the context was supposed to add," Anas replied. "Didn't say what you did was illegal in any way, I just found it gross."

The livestream occurred on September 21, but was more widely shared from September 24. It was later taken down.

After the escort had left, Pepper and Denino went back out onto the streets of Brisbane. In one clip, it looks like police are waiting for them, which stirred rumors that they had been arrested for sexual assault.

Denino later confirmed the police had shown up because they had been "swatted" — a term coined by the streaming community to describe what happens when viewers call law enforcement on a creator, often claiming illegal activity so that armed police show up as they are streaming.

"I got swatted after not arrested," Denino wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. He also said the police "wrote off" the content as "legal and safe."

Insider contacted the Queensland Police Service for further information.

Screenshots that have been circulating on social media since the stunt have also included close-ups of the livechat that was occurring throughout.

Some noticed that Kick's cofounder Ed Craven, known as Eddie, was present in the chat and appeared to be laughing.

Craven has not responded directly to that, but Kick posted a statement on its X account on September 24.

The statement did not reference Denino's livestream directly, but said the platform was assessing "where the balances sits" and would change its guidelines and enforcement policies.

The note said that "community & public safety cannot be compromised in the process of making 'content.'"

"We're continuously learning where this balance sits and are making changes daily."

Denino was once a popular streamer on Twitch, but was banned from the platform in 2017 after a video he was in featured a bomb threat.

He was on an American Airlines plane waiting for takeoff in Phoenix, Arizona, and a viewer called in a bomb threat in his name, Vice reported — Denino later said he didn't endorse the stunt.

"You swat my house, whatever, fuck you," he said in a response on his YouTube channel at the time. "You swat a plane? That's a whole other level. You don't expect that to happen."

Pepper, a former "Big Brother" star, also has a controversial past, with several women claiming in 2014 that he had sexually harassed them, BBC Newsbeat reported. His attorney told he outlet he "denies any and all accusations that have been made against him."

Insider reached out to Kick, Pepper, and Denino for comment.