The French police investigate the death of a popular streamer, who died during an almost 12-day live stream after apparently suffering abuse and humiliating treatment.
Raphaël Graven, 46, known online as Jean Pormanove or JP, is one of the largest streamers in France on the platform kick and died on Monday.
The 46-year-old military veteran had built up the next numbering with more than a million on different platforms that stream themselves with playing video games and often appeared in extreme challenges.
He has been working with various other streamers since 2023, mainly Owen Cenazandotti, known as Naruto Online, and Safine Hamadi, both of whom participated in his last live stream.
Cenazandotti announced his death on Instagram on Monday. In the video live stream that seemed to show his death, after he stopped moving, viewers gave money to send messages that warn sleep streamers about the state of Pormanove.
The office of the nice public prosecutor told CNN that an investigation was opened in his death and ordered an autopsy. Until now, the authorities have not announced any charges with regard to the death of Pormanove.
In dozens of videos from earlier live streams assessed by CNN, Pormanove seems to be the target of jokes, bullying, physical attacks and humiliating stunts.
Videos from their joint live streams show the colleague streamers of Pormanove who compete to see how long they could smother him, show others that he is being shot with paintballs or topped with water.
Thanks to donations from subscribers, the group earned money from the live streams. In the last live stream of Pormanove, a counter suggested at the top of the screen that the group had earned around 36,000 euros ($ 42,000) from the days of electricity.
Leave a stamp
During the last live stream of Pormanove, which seemed to be walking for almost 300 hours, the participants woke up by the revival of an engine in their shared bedroom or a leaf blower. At some point Pormanove seems to wake up when a bucket of water is thrown over him.
In an interview with CNN -Affiliate BFMTV, Yassin Sadouni, a lawyer for Cenazandotti, said that Pormanove suffered from heart and vascular problems.
In one video, Pormanove spoke about having to take medication. In another claims to read Cenazandotti messages that Pormanove sent to his mother in which he complains that he is being held by his co-streamers 'prisoner'.
The game “goes too far,” said Cenazandotti that his message read, during the last live stream from Pormanove.
“I feel that I am being trapped by their SH *** y concept,” said CenaZandotti, Pormanove wrote.
It is not clear to whom exactly Pormanove referred and in a later clip he tells Cenazandotti: “You know how I am when I'm angry” in reference to the messages.
In another clip, his mother Pormanove learns by telephone to let the co-streamers shave parts of his hair.
“Are you proud of your hair? Have you seen what he did to you?” She said, “They treat you as S ***.”
Sadouni, the lawyer of Cenazandotti, told BFMTV that the mother of Pormanove participated in staged stunts with the streamers.
A common theme in discussions with his co-streamers was the wish of Pormanove to get married and have children, a lot that apparently apparently spotted from the streamers.
In a video from 2024, Pormanove was asked how he hoped to be remembered when he died.
“No woman, no children. But what a nice guy!” Pormanove said, “I, what I am thinking about now, it is to leave a stamp.”
'An absolute horror'
Sadouni said that Cenazandotti – known at his streamer handle Naruto – had nothing to do with the death of Pormanove and said that the incidents that focus on Pormanove were all increased.
“My customer is ready to be heard and to provide all useful information,” he told CNN -Affiliate BFMTV on Tuesday. Cenazandotti has also filed a complaint with the authorities that he has been harassed online since the death of Pormanove, according to Sadouni.
CNN has contacted Pormanove's mother and Hamadi for comment.
Cenazandotti and Hamadi were briefly held as part of a police investigation into the humiliation of vulnerable people in January 2025, according to CNN Affiliate BFMTV.
According to the nice public prosecutor, they denied the committing of a crime and are not accused of any crime.
“The death of Jean Pormanove and the violence he has endured are an absolute horror,” said the French State Secretary for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz in a post on X Tuesday.
“Jean Pormanove was humiliated for months and mistreated on the kick platform,” she added.
Kick, the streaming platform that the streamers used, said that all involved in the broadcast “pending the current investigation” were forbidden, with which the site will work together, according to a statement to CNN Wednesday.
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