Pokimane witch hunt sparked after out-of-context clip goes viral with racism accusations

Twitch’s most popular female streamer, Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys, is currently on a break from streaming. Her break coincides with a vicious witch hunt that has been sparked after a tactically cropped clip was spread on social media, to make it appear as though she said a racial slur.

As one of Twitch’s biggest names, Pokimane has faced various ‘scandals’ in the past – such as copyright-claiming YouTube videos that were critical of her content, and was called out by PewDiePie for it.

However, this latest “scandal” is simply evidence that an on-stream moment can be tactically and surreptitiously clipped – in this case to make the streamer appear to use a racial slur.

Did Pokimane use the n-word?

No – Pokimane did not use the n-word. At least not in this clip from July 9, of her playing Valorant and laughing with teammates. Pokimane actually says “like who asked?”

This is clear when the clip is not trimmed to the exact point it has been, numerous times, on social media, because Pokimane says “Like… like who asked?” By trimming out the first “like”, the “like who” is, admittedly, easily misheard as a racial slur.

Here is the clip – with an extra ten seconds added to the start, which makes it clear Pokimane said “like” – not the ‘n-word’. After saying “like” the first time, she completes her thought, “like who asked.”

Pokimane witch hunt result of misleading clip

Of course, the clip that went viral on social media was only 14 seconds long – and conveniently begins just after Pokimane said “like” the first time.

This resulted in countless tweets, from both small accounts and big, including some streamers, confidently proclaiming that Pokimane had brazenly used the n-word.

“It’s the sad truth,” said fighting games pro PunkDaGod.

Many other tweets spread the claim that Pokimane used the slur, as though it were confirmed.

One particularly common trend is calling out Twitter news poster Jake Lucky for somehow failing to bring attention to something that did not happen.

GreekGodX has even implied that Jake Lucky is deliberately avoiding posting it because he wants to maintain relations with OfflineTV, the streamer group Pokimane is part of.

However, Pokimane did not use the n-word in this instance. Every clip used to claim otherwise is expertly trimmed to remove the first “like” – a deliberate attempt to twist the incident and have Pokimane banned, canceled and branded a racist.

It is worth pointing out that Pokimane did in fact use a racial slur on a stream over 8 years ago – she apologized for this incident in 2020, stating “I’m genuinely so sorry if I hurt anyone with what I said. I do hope that my behavior in regards to language for the last couple of years and onwards speaks for itself.”

So, no, Pokimane did not use a slur during a Valorant stream in July 2022. The streamer is currently on a break from Twitch, for a “mental reset.”