Twitch partnerships director accused of sexual assault

Twitch Accounts Director of Strategic Partnerships Hassan Bokhari is facing allegations of sexual assault from longtime broadcaster ‘Vio,’ as more streamers are coming forward with similar accounts.

Bokhari, known on the platform as simply ‘Hassan,’ reportedly used his position of power at Twitch to levy event passes, free products, and Partner status – a sought-after career goal for some streamers – to get closer to these women.

Eventually it culminated into Vio feeling pressured to perform sexual acts and engage in intimate relations with Bokhari.

“Eventually he managed to pressure me into oral sex,” Vio said. “By PAX West 2015, he managed to pressure me into sex. I said no more times than I can count, but each time Hassan took ‘no’ as ‘convince me.’”

Vio, formerly known as ‘vio7_2’ on Twitch until a favor from Bokhari immediately resulted in the change, shared her story detailing a pattern of manipulation, persuasion, and promises she said he would use to form bonds.

“He abused his position a lot,” Vio said in her TwitLonger. “[One night he] links me to a form. The form was meant for partners as a Christmas gift to them… He used the form to get my number, and I even called him out on it which he casually played off.”

She mentioned that some items Bokhari was offering were only meant for partnered Twitch streamers, which he allegedly replied: “I have a feeling you’ll be [a partner] soon.’”

Vio Twitter

An exchange between Bokhari and Vio prior to an event at the time.

Promotion packages and other gifts, like an instant pass into Pax East 2015, were methods he would use to get information on potential victims, such as phone numbers, or ways to get near them, according to Vio.

She noted how the Twitch Director would handle sensitive information about other partnered streamers, “I’ve seen things from partner dashboards/revenue dashboards, work emails, work group chats/emails especially in regards to bans, personal partner contracts including the ones of some of the biggest streamers.”

After forming a consistent relationship with Bokhari, Vio later said that she confronted him about explicit photos of her circulating among friends. According to her, she had shared concerns about taking the images for him, and later caught wind that Bokhari was the likely source of them getting out.

He denied involvement in the leaked photos, according to Vio. Bokhari nor Twitch have responded to the allegations.

via Scott Spaziani Medium

Bokhari reportedly offered Vio instant access to Pax East.

Other female Twitch streamers have spoken out about interactions with Bokhari.

“When I was an affiliate [Bokhari] hit on me and asked me to go to Vegas with him after lurking in my chat for like a week,” streamer ‘yellowspoongirl’ said in reply to Vio’s story. “It really threw me off and I was scared to directly turn him down because I legit thought I wouldn’t get partnered.”

Vio shared messages between Bokhari and a female streamer referenced as ‘Domi,’ in which he reportedly contacted her to give promotional items and then later suggested a meet-up.

These accusations follow Twitch’s announcement on June 24 that the company would be making strides to make the platform a safer place for its users.

“For those who’ve come forward and would like to share additional information, and to anyone who hasn’t shared their experience and wants to do so,” Twitch wrote in a statement.” You can report confidentially through the reporting tools on each streamer’s channel page.

“We’re also committed to continuing our efforts to make Twitch a safer environment with more tools to combat harassment and hate… We will continue to assess accusations against people affiliated with Twitch and explore ways Twitch can collaborate with other industry leaders on this important issue.”

The allegations against Bokhari come at the heels of numerous survivors in the scene sharing their stories against creators, streamers, and prominent industry figures like Syndicate, TobiWan, SayNoToRage, Mini Ladd, THINND, and more.