Political streamer Destiny pulled off one of the year’s most successful media pranks this week. He posted a message on X suggesting Twitch had just banned him, and major news outlets immediately ran with the story without checking basic facts.
The streamer posted what appeared to be correspondence from Twitch about his ban, letting readers assume it was recent. The post went viral on X, gathering massive engagement as people reacted to the apparent news.
Fox News aired a segment claiming Destiny had been “fired and banned” by Twitch. Breitbart and Russian state media RT published similar stories. The problem? Destiny has been banned from Twitch since March 2022.
During a later stream, Destiny revealed the entire thing was deliberate bait. He wanted to test how media outlets verify information and how political commentators would react. The test worked better than expected.
“The letter was three years old,” Destiny explained on stream. He said only one journalist, from ABC, actually messaged him to verify before publishing.
The outlets made several basic errors. First, they used the word “fired” when Twitch doesn’t employ streamers, it bans them or terminates partnerships. Second, a simple Google search would have shown Destiny’s ban happened in 2022, widely reported at the time for comments about transgender athletes.
Community Notes on X quickly flagged the post as misleading, but by then major outlets had already published their stories. No corrections or retractions have been noted.
Destiny has streamed on YouTube and his own website since the 2022 Twitch ban. He also occasionally appears on Kick. His streaming operations remain unchanged by this week’s viral moment.
