By: Ming Sun

Kai Cenat, the record holder for the most monthly subscribers on Twitch, is facing many charges including riot incitement. He hosted a PlayStation 5 giveaway in a New York City park, which resulted in the park being swarmed by thousands of people and led to dozens of arrests and injuries.

The giveaway was announced on Cenat’s Instagram and it was scheduled for last Friday at 4:00 pm in Union Square (The Washington Post). By 1:30 pm of that day, 300 people had already gathered, which was expected, according to Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer. The situation quickly escalated, however, and by 3:00 pm, the number of people grew from 300 to several thousand as news of the giveaway spread. Union Square was soon overrun as people started to throw objects around at the police and some people even lit fireworks, which only added to the chaos. The police started to disperse the crowd at around 5:00, and by 6:00, the crowd was mostly out of the park (The Washington Post).

Maddrey said that, by the end of the day, police had arrested 65 people, including 30 juveniles. He continued, stating that 4 civilians and 2 police officers were sent to the hospital in ambulances, and numerous others were suffering from various less severe injuries (The Washington Post). Maddrey later said that Cenat “is going to be charged with multiple counts: At least two counts of incitement to riot, unlawful assembly and a few other charges … I personally saw other people leaving here with their heads split open, you know, cuts, bruises, lacerations”, he said of the resulting injuries from the chaos (The Washington Post).

Cenat is a huge online influencer with 6.5 million followers on Twitch and can make tens of thousands of dollars from streaming even his sleep. Since 2021, Cenat had been banned by Twitch multiple times for infractions including displaying explicit imagery, threatening other users, and streaming while under the influence of illicit substances. The Friday giveaway shows the power these influencers have, and Maddrey warns that social media can be dangerous when misused, highlighting that “we have to be responsible when we use this tool” (The Washington Post).

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