FouseyTube’s arrest following destructive livestream proves creators won’t stop at anything anymore

By Charlie Sawyer

Published Aug 23, 2023 at 11:55 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

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It’s no secret that content creators these days (whether that’s on YouTube or TikTok) have begun taking some pretty extreme measures in their videos all in the name of virality. I mean, you only have to look at someone like Mizzy—whose idea of an entertaining video involves illegally entering a stranger’s home without their knowledge—to understand that maybe we’ve all just become far too desensitised to what qualifies as ‘content’ these days. FouseyTube getting arrested is just the latest example of this.

If you’ve been on the internet for a while, you’ll probably be familiar with the name Fousey, or FouseyTube. Fousey has been on YouTube since 2011, creating a wide variety of content along the way—from fitness and daily vlogs to pranks and music. Now settled on livestreaming platforms like Twitch and Kick, the content creator has found himself to be a magnet for controversy.

One such controversy occurred just earlier this month, in August 2023, when Fousey encountered an evidently intoxicated woman at an airport who was allegedly a victim of sex trafficking. Still streaming, the creator flirted with the woman, disappeared for 30 minutes, and returned bragging about having had sex with her.

Following intense criticism, Fousey later admitted that the entire ordeal was a ‘prank’ and that he was suffering deeply from mental health issues. This led to him being banned from Twitch, prompting a switch to Twitch streaming rival, Kick.

This brings us to the present day. Ever since Fousey joined Kick, he’s been doing 24/7 livestreams for his subs and during his broadcast on Monday 21 August, he went ahead and did something seriously dumb. Filming himself, the creator decided to walk down the middle of an extremely busy freeway in Miami, attempting to talk to people in different cars and ask them whether they knew who he was… These are not the actions of someone who should be streaming live non-stop.

Then, to top things off, not even a day later, the YouTuber decided to call the cops on himself during a stream, claiming that there was someone holding a gun to his head. The video is pretty disturbing to watch in all honesty.

Shortly after, a group of who we can only assume are official police officers, arrived at Fousey’s hotel room and proceeded to arrest the creator. Some netizens online have argued that the police officers were most likely paid actors, however, this has yet to be confirmed.

Fans are now calling for Kick to also ban Fousey from the platform, citing that he shouldn’t be allowed to livestream in his current condition.

The entire ordeal is pretty hard to get your head around. There are, of course, people who believe that this saga is just another prank gone too far—something we’ve all become accustomed to in today’s present social media climate. But the thing is, why is that something we’ve just accepted? With so many new creators and genres of content constantly growing in popularity and views, it feels as though people have now come to the conclusion that if it’s not shocking, it won’t perform.

In May this year, a YouTuber named Trevor Jacob deliberately crashed a plane—solely for views. The 29-year-old now faces up to 20 years in federal prison. In 2018, Monalisa Perez was sentenced to six months imprisonment for killing her boyfriend by shooting him in a botched stunt they hoped would go viral on YouTube. It’s only a matter of time before a simple mukbang in the car just won’t cut it anymore.