While on her way home after an IRL stream, Twitch star Shibuya Kaho was stream sniped by a fan who waited for her at a train station, resulting in a “scary” situation for the content creator.
Stream sniping has become a normalized activity for die-hard Twitch fans who take things too far. For those unaware, this is when someone from Twitch chat looks through a streamer’s broadcast and uses clues within the environment to track down their real-life location.
The fan then finds the streamer in person in an attempt to greet them. And though in the eyes of a fan, this may seem simply like an act of respect to see their favorite streamer, pending on the context of the situation it very well may result in discomfort and an invasion of privacy for the streamer.
In Shibuya Kaho’s case, a fan knew she had to take the last train after her stream concluded. They waited for her at a station in Tokyo, and eventually found her, much to her shock.
My Twitch chat waiting for me at a station in Tokyo when they knew I was trying to catch my last train after streaming in Shizuoka scared me in so many ways…
— Shibuya Kaho (@Shibukaho) January 3, 2023
This encounter “scared [her] in so many ways…” Kaho actually had “to tell her fans ‘[please] don’t come find me off stream, not even for saying good-bye at the airport or on bullet train when [she is] traveling'”.
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According to Kaho, the stream sniping incident “totally caught [her] off guard when [she] was going home alone after the stream… [She] thought the concept of stream sniping is only when [they’re] live.”
Fans have a tendency to restrain their behavior when appearing on their favorite streamer’s broadcasts, since their actions are recorded and they may be judged by others online. In Shibuya Kaho’s case, the fan appeared when her cameras and broadcast were off. In other words, the small protection of the content creator’s stream is no longer a factor.
Though Shibuya Kaho was safe, the encounter itself caused her great unease — which is a very justifiable response to the action her fan took. There may not have been ill intent, but the invasion of privacy and lack of boundaries is a very real concern.