Yesterday, streamer Emily 'Emiru' Schunk was assaulted by a fan at TwitchCon 2025, sparking controversy over security at the event. In response, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy sat down with Taylor Lorenz and addressed the situation directly.
“The safety of our creators is our top priority,” Clancy said in a short clip taken from the interview, which will be shared in full on Wednesday. “The challenges we face are the challenges of society today. It's not just limited to Twitch, it extends across society. I think when you live stream, you can control the community in a number of ways and ban people. You can make sure that people who don't want to interact and engage with you aren't there.”
We are looking very closely at everything that happened there.
“What happened yesterday is clearly something we care deeply about securing this environment. We are watching everything that happens there very closely and I care deeply about Emi. She is my friend and I want to know how we can support her.”
Clancy also claimed that while Twitch's trust and safety tools are “an industry leader,” “challenges” will always present themselves. Many are unconvinced by these claims as to how easily the fan was able to reach Emiru by passing through multiple security gates without being cut down.
“No one from TwitchCon came to ask what happened or if I was okay.”
Some have taken his comments about society and his suggestion to 'ban people' as deflecting blame, noting that this is not a viable solution given how easy it is for viewers to create alternative accounts and continue the harassment. Not to mention that banning viewers will do little to prevent them from appearing at offline events like TwitchCon.
Emiru insisted that Clancy was a close friend and stressed that he “never felt cared for or protected,” despite Twitch working with streamers to prevent situations like this.
“I don’t understand how I allowed him to approach me in the first place,” she said of the fan. “There were at least three or four other TwitchCon security personnel in the area, but they did not respond and had the person leave. […] My friend who was there joked that there was also a Twitch security employee behind the booth and said he didn't even see what happened.
“The Twitch statement said he was immediately caught and detained. I'm sorry, but that's a blatant lie. He was allowed to leave my meeting, and I was told he wasn't caught until hours after he attacked me. This happened because my manager pressured me, not because the TwitchCon staff thought it was a big deal. It was the same.”
As it turns out, it was Emiru's own security guard who stopped the attack, the same sheriff who reportedly grabbed the stalker's arm as he took Emiru to the police and got him banned from a previous TwitchCon event.
In contrast to Clancy's claims of industry-leading security and taking creator safety seriously, Emiru urged others to “consider not attending in the future” because they “did not feel cared for or protected” by TwitchCon staff.
- established
-
June 6, 2011
- founder
-
Emmett rest
- number of users
-
2.78 Average concurrent users (2021)
