Kick bans streamer Destiny for “hate speech” after Trump shooting backlash

Steven ‘Destiny’ Bonnel has been banned on Kick for comments he made about the shooting at a Donald Trump rally.

On July 16, Kick took action after Destiny made a series of remarks about the victim of a Trump rally shooting, a 50-year-old firefighter named Corey Comperatore. Trump was shot in the ear at the rally and only survived when he tilted his head at the last moment.

Following the shooting, Destiny made inflammatory comments towards the victim and said that if any conservative fans had been killed at an event, he would be making fun of them the next day on Twitter.

The streamer shared a screenshot from Kick about his ban, revealing that the suspension isn’t permanent and he will be allowed back on the platform on July 31.

In the screenshot, Kick noted that the reason for the ban was “hate speech.”

Despite the suspension, Destiny remained defiant, saying he is “never apologizing for the way I treat conservash*ts in this country.”

The Kick streamer doubled down on his comments during an appearance on Piers Morgan, where he refused the host’s request to “condemn what happened as an outrageous attack on democracy.”

“No, I won’t,” Bonnel insisted. “Absolutely not.”

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The streamer shared similar comments on social media that drew backlash. X owner, Elon Musk, called the statements “not appropriate content for advertisers,” and Destiny’s account was later demonetized.

“It’s not me, it’s advertisers,” Musk explained when pressed on the decision to remove Bonnel from X’s ad revenue sharing program.

This isn’t the first time Destiny’s political statements have landed him in hot water. In 2020, he lost his Twitch partnership for appearing to promote violence towards protesters and was permanently banned in 2022.

In 2023, he would join Kick, signing a lucrative 7-figure deal with the new platform as it picked up other big names in the streaming space such as Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel.

He’s not the only political content creator to be banned for controversial statements, either. In August 2019, Hasan was suspended on Twitch for a week for claiming the United States “deserved” to be attacked on September 11.