Pokimane's 5 controversial takes that landed her in hot water

Imane "Pokimane" is a veteran Twitch streamer who has been one of the biggest faces on the platform since 2017, when she was awarded the Best Twitch Streamer of the year by the Shorty Awards. Since then, she has only grown in popularity, with over 9.3 million followers on Twitch.

However, her career has not always followed a linear path to success, as many opinions and comments made by the Moroccan-Canadian internet star have been cause of controversy.

This article explores five incidents where Imane's comments landed her in hot water.

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5 controversies Pokimane has found herself in

1) Beefing with JiDion, and nearly getting sued by Ninja

On January 12, 2022, controversial streamer Jidion "JiDion" seemed to hate brigade Pokimane by encouraging his audience to spam her stream with the phrase L+Ratio. This earned him a 14-day suspension. However, this was eventually translated into a permanent ban on Twitch.

This was when she started receiving hate from Jidion's followers, who blamed her for him being permanently banned from the platform. This is where Tyler "Ninja" came into the picture and offered Jidion assistance in lowering the duration of the ban.

Pokimane criticized Ninja for his advances in the situation. She also showcased a clip of Ninja stating that he had sent a text to his Twitch representative in an effort to reduce the ban, even though he mentioned that he did not guarantee any fruitful outcome:

"All right, I sent the text. I don't promise a godd*mn thing, 'cause at the end of the day what happened, happened."

This led to allegations of supporting misogyny and sexism to be levied against Ninja, which was refuted by Jessica Blevins, who was Tyler's wife and manager at the time. Jessica further stated that Ninja had not texted his Twitch rep and declared that they would sue Pokimane for her comments.

JiDion and Pokimane, however, reconciled later on.

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2) Responding to a fan saying Kick was "taking over"

When one of the chatters in her stream stated that Twitch rival and gambling-sponsored platform Kick was "taking over." Pokimane stated that "Kick makes Twitch money" and explained the logic behind her statement. She further stated that it was within Twitch's power to stop providing "services" to Kick if they really wanted to:

"Respectfully, people that say stuff like this, you don't understand that Kick makes Twitch money. Like, Kick is using Twitch's services. And, if Twitch really wanted, they could just stop giving these services to Kick. But right now, they're just sitting back like, 'Thanks,' I guess. Honestly, I don't really care that much. Yeah. Well, AWS is Amazon and Twitch is Amazon. So, in a way, it is."

This statement was widely criticized by netizens and creators alike, with Mutahar "SomeOrdinaryGamers" and xQc responding to the statements.

Under a post on X, Mutahar and a few others explained the economics of Amazon Web Services (AWS) while mentioning that she "doesn't understand" how it works:

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3) Joking that "Women belong in the kitchen"

Pokimane was criticized by users after she seemingly made a statement that would be considered by most to be sexist. The situation arose when a viewer asked Pokimane if she believed that women should "cook and clean" in a relationship, to which she laughingly responded:

"All women belong in the kitchen."

Even though it was apparent that the streamer was being sarcastic while saying so, users quickly took her words out of context, which led to an intense backlash in her Twitch stream chat.

Eventually, however, the streamer came about her joke and clarified that it was a joke amidst the ensuing drama.

She stated that, unlike what many users had inferred from his sarcastic remark, and assured viewers that she was not a sexist individual:

"It was a f**king joke dudes. I feel like the worst thing is having to explain a joke. Really, guys, don’t worry guys. God, I’m not sexist. On God, for real, not sexist by the way. I bet you a buck fifty that I’m not, I swear.”

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4) Saying the N-word on live stream

A post by the creator of Drama Alert, Keemstar, showcasing Pokimane dropping the "n-word" casually mid-stream went viral. Although it was hard to believe so initially due to how offhand it seemed, it sounded quite similar to the racial epithet.

However, the streamer clarified that she was talking about the League of Legends character Anivia and asked Keemstar to "stop baiting likes by spreading lies:"

Keemstar, however, was unconvinced by Pokimane's clarification and still believed that the streamer had used the word, even using "Hard G," according to him:

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5) Having to apologize for her Cookies

Pokimane launched her brand Myna Snacks' first product, the Midnight Cookies, which were priced at a high amount of $28. When one particularly frustrated user on her stream's chat complained to the streamer about the price, she stated that it makes her "brain go boom" when people complain about her price

She further proceeded to call the individual a "broke boy," much to the disappointment of netizens:

"I've got to say this one last time - it makes my brain go boom when people are like, 'Oh, my god! $28 for cookies?!' It's four bags. That's $7 a pack. I know math is hard when you're an idiot. But, if you're a broke boy, just say so."

The backlash was so severe that one user's post on X involving them expressing their frustrations about the cookies went viral, receiving 9.3 million views. Eventually, Imane apologized to the public for the joke and promised to work on the pricing to make the cookies more affordable.

While Pokimane submitted to public scrutiny and apologized for her statements, Adin Ross believed that she should not have done so and felt that she should not have to "apologize for making a joke."