One of the more disturbing things to see on Twitch is someone being swatted. A malicious fan learns of a streamer's address and calls the police under the false pretense of an emergency or crisis event happening at the residence that would warrant sending in the SWAT team. The practice of swatting can have fatal consequences, and often the perpetrator is able to escape justice due to the anonymity of the internet. A FaZe Clan member is now the latest victim of a swatting, and it was caught live on stream.
It was only a month ago that Apex Legends pro Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen was swatted, and before that, it was the hugely popular streamer Tfue who was similarly victimized by a disturbed fan. The practice of swatting a streamer is extremely dangerous, putting their lives at risk, yet it seems to be occurring with increased frequency of late. The uptick in incidents is a disturbing trend.
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FaZe Clan's Nate Hill was minding his own business, streaming Fortnite as he often does, when his roommate alerted him that police were at his residence. Hill cuts his Twitch stream to go meet with police, leaving his fans worried. Hill took to Twitter shortly after to report that the situation was resolved before expressing his disbelief over the whole matter. Hill is fortunate that nothing did happen as a result of the SWAT team call, as it is easy for situations like this to turn bad quickly. SWAT are trained to handle emergencies where there is believed to be great risk involved, and one false move on the part of the swatted streamer could be fatal.
While streamers provide entertainment and create close connections with their fans, the nature of that relationship can also be misunderstood. If a fan feels betrayed, they might seek retribution by swatting, or resort to stalking—a distressing problem primarily affecting female streamers. YouTuber Valkyrae received help from Twitter after a stalker harassed her for months, making hundreds of accounts on the platform to keep up the obsessive behavior.
Despite the fact that nothing tragic happened as a result of this disturbing incident, it bears repeating that swatting is extremely dangerous, and is a practice that needs to be eradicated from livestreaming and gaming culture. Whenever a streamer's personal information is leaked, or in the recent case of YouTuber Dream, doxxed, there is the risk that something like swatting could occur. It does seem that law enforcement are better equipped to deal with cases that seem likely to be a swatting, but that the practice continues to exist is chilling.
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Source: Dexerto