French streamer dies live online during extreme challenge

By Joseph Ataman, Pierre Bairin, Philippe Cordier, CNN

Paris (CNN) — French police are investigating the death of a popular streamer, who died during a nearly 12-day stream after apparently suffering abusive and humiliating treatment while viewers watched live.

Raphaël Graven, 46, known online as Jean Pormanove or JP, is one of the biggest streamers in France on the platform Kick and died on Monday.

The Nice prosecutor’s office told CNN that an investigation has been opened into his death and an autopsy ordered. It said preliminary results indicated that Pormanove’s death was not due to a traumatic injury and “is not linked to the involvement of a third party.” So far, authorities have not announced any charges related to Pormanove’s death.

The 46-year-old military veteran had built a following numbering more than a million across different platforms streaming himself playing video games. He had often appeared in extreme challenges where other streamers assaulted or humiliated him.

Since 2023, he had appeared with several other streamers, principally Owen Cenazandotti, known as Naruto online, and Safine Hamadi, both of whom took part in his final livestream.

Cenazandotti announced his death Monday on Instagram. In the video livestream that appeared to show his death, after he stopped moving, viewers donated money to send messages alerting the sleeping streamers to Pormanove’s condition.

In dozens of videos from past livestreams reviewed by CNN, Pormanove appears to be the target of jokes, bullying, physical attacks and degrading stunts.

Videos from their joint livestreams show Pormanove’s fellow streamers competing to see how long they could throttle him, others show him being shot with paintballs or doused with water.

The extent to which Pormanove voluntarily subjected himself to the violence, or whether any of it was staged, was unclear.

Thanks to donations from subscribers, the group earned money from the livestreams. In Pormanove’s final livestream, a counter at the top of the screen suggested the group had earned some 36,000 euros ($42,000) from the days-long stream.

Leaving a mark

During Pormanove’s final livestream, which appeared to run to nearly 300 hours, participants were woken up by the revving of a motorbike in their shared bedroom, or a leafblower. At one point, Pormanove appears to be woken up when a bucket of water is thrown over him.

In an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV, Yassin Sadouni, a lawyer for Cenazandotti, said Pormanove suffered from cardiovascular problems.

In one video, Pormanove talked of having to take medication. In another, Cenazandotti purports to read out messages Pormanove sent to his mother in which he complains of being “held prisoner” by his co-streamers.

The game “is going too far,” Cenazandotti said his message read, during Pormanove’s last livestream.

“I feel like I’m being held prisoner by their sh***y concept,” Cenazandotti said Pormanove wrote.

It’s not clear who precisely Pormanove was referring to and in a later clip he tells Cenazandotti, “you know what I’m like when I’m angry” in reference to the messages.

In another clip, his mother berates Pormanove over the phone for letting the co-streamers shave off parts of his hair.

“Are you proud of your hair? Did you see what he did to you?” she said, “They are treating you like s***.”

Sadouni, Cenazandotti’s lawyer, told BFMTV that Pormanove’s mother participated in staged stunts with the streamers.

A common theme in discussions with his co-streamers was Pormanove’s wish to marry and have children, a hope that often drew apparently mockery from the streamers.

In a video from 2024, Pormanove was asked how he hoped to be remembered when he died.

“No wife, no kids. But what a nice guy!” Pormanove said, “Me, what’s on my mind now, it’s to leave a mark.”

‘An absolute horror’

Sadouni said Cenazandotti – known by his streamer handle Naruto – had nothing to do with Pormanove’s death and said that the incidents targeting Pormanove were all staged.

“My client is ready to be heard and to provide all useful information,” he told CNN affiliate BFMTV Tuesday. Cenazandotti has also filed a complaint with authorities that he is being harassed online since Pormanove’s death, according to Sadouni.

Tom Michel, Safine Hamadi’s lawyer, told CNN affiliate BFMTV Thursday, “All that you see there is not always simulated. A blow can’t always be simulated. However, all that you see was consented to.”

CNN has reached out to Pormanove’s mother for comment.

Cenazandotti and Hamadi were briefly detained as part of a police investigation into the humiliation of vulnerable people in January 2025, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

According to the Nice prosecutor, they denied committing any crime and have not been charged with any crime.

“The death of Jean Pormanove and the violence he endured are an absolute horror,” French Secretary of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz said in a post on X Tuesday.

“Jean Pormanove was humiliated and mistreated for months live on the Kick platform,” she added.

Kick, the streaming platform the streamers used, said that all those involved in the broadcast had been banned “pending the ongoing investigation,” which the site will cooperate with, per a statement to CNN Wednesday.

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