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Abuse

A Kick stream shows Jean Pormanove and others.
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Kick Streamer Reportedly Dies On Camera After Months Of Alleged Abuse

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Raphaël “Jeanpormanove” Graven reportedly died in his sleep earlier this week following broadcasts on Kick where he was routinely assaulted by others in controversial “humiliation” livestreams. According to the BBC, a judicial investigation in France is underway, with French government minister for digital technologies Clara Chappaz calling what Graven experienced “absolute horror.”

The death of the 46-year-old, whose streaming career began with TikTok videos about GTA 5 and FIFA and who had amassed over a million followers across all his channels, appears to have been captured live during his latest, and last, marathon Kick broadcast. Graven’s more recent content, which he created as part of the collective Le LokalTV, included being seemingly brutalized by two fellow streamers who go by the aliases “Naruto” and “Safine,” with some clips appearing to show violent, prolonged strangulations. An investigation last year by Mediapart alleged that Graven had been subject to “months of online abuse.”

It’s unclear what exactly the relationship was between all of the men, though reporting by Mediapart suggests the “humiliation” streams were lucrative and helped propel the popularity of Graven and the group’s channel on Kick. Naruto and Safine were reportedly taken into custody earlier this year but were later released amid an ongoing investigation. Kick also temporarily suspended the channel but it later resumed streaming again. Clips of the alleged abuse can be found circulating online.

Mediapart now reports that viewers of the stream earlier this week on Discord became worried about Graven’s condition after he appeared to being laying motionless in his sleep for an extended period of time. According to the AFP, an autopsy to determine the cause of death has been ordered.

Kick is a competitor to Twitch and YouTube known for its loose guidelines and minimal moderation. Streamers there can promote gambling and other topics that are prohibited on other streaming platforms. A representative for Kick told the BBC it was “urgently reviewing” the circumstances around Graven’s apparent death on camera. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jeanpormanove and extend our condolences to his family, friends and community,” they said.





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Senate Probe Uncovers Allegations of Widespread Abuse in ICE Custody
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Senate Probe Uncovers Allegations of Widespread Abuse in ICE Custody

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A United States Senate investigation has identified more than 500 credible reports of human rights abuses in US immigration detention since January, including alarming allegations of mistreatment of pregnant women and children.

As of late last month, the investigation—led by US senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat of Georgia—had unearthed 41 cases of physical and sexual abuse; 14 involving pregnant detainees and 18 involving children.

The accounts of abuse span facilities in 25 states and include Puerto Rico, US military bases, and charter deportation flights. Among the most harrowing: a pregnant woman reportedly bled for days before being taken to a hospital, only to miscarry alone without medical attention. Others described being forced to sleep on the floor or denied meals and medical exams. Attorneys reported that their clients’ prenatal checkups were canceled for weeks at a time.

Children as young as 2 were also subjected to neglect. One US citizen child with severe medical needs was hospitalized multiple times while in Customs and Border Protection custody, where an officer allegedly dismissed her mother’s pleas for help by telling her to “just give the girl a cracker.” Another child recovering from brain surgery was reportedly denied follow-up care, and a 4-year-old undergoing cancer treatment was deported without access to doctors.

The Senate investigation found most abuse reports at detention centers in Texas, Georgia, and California, spanning both facilities run by the Department of Homeland Security and federal prisons used under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agreements. The findings are based on dozens of witness interviews, Ossoff’s office says, including detainees, family members, attorneys, correctional staff, law enforcement, doctors and nurses, as well as site inspections of detention centers in Texas and Georgia.

The report also cites corroborating news investigations and public records, drawing on sources such as WIRED, Miami Herald, NBC News, CNN, BBC, and regional outlets like Louisiana Illuminator and VT Digger.

Together, these sources formed the foundation of what the report describes as an “active and ongoing investigation” into systemic mistreatment of pregnant women and children in US custody.

ICE did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

A WIRED investigation published in late June focused on 911 calls from 10 of the nation’s largest ICE detention centers, and it revealed a pattern of medical crises ranging from pregnancy complications and suicide attempts to seizures, head injuries, and allegations of sexual assault. (WIRED shared its findings with Ossoff’s office upon request last month.)

Sources told WIRED that detention staff frequently failed to respond to urgent calls for help, including multiple cases in which pregnant women suffered serious complications or miscarriages without timely medical attention.

The Trump administration’s detention system is undergoing rapid expansion, with plans to more than double capacity to over 107,000 beds nationwide. New facilities are rising in West Texas, where a $232 million contract has funded a tent-style camp at Fort Bliss capable of holding up to 5,000 people; and in Indiana, where ICE struck a deal to house 1,000 detainees in the state prison system.

Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” caged encampment has already drawn lawsuits over alleged human rights abuses and environmental damage, while critics warn that relying on military bases and remote rural prisons to absorb the surge strips detainees of due process and shields conditions from public scrutiny.

Civil rights groups and local advocates argue that the expansion cements a system already plagued by neglect, pointing to reports of miscarriages, untreated illness, and violence inside.

With contracts flowing to private prison companies and military facilities alike, the US is locking in the largest immigration detention network in the country’s history—an infrastructure that critics say is designed not only to hold migrants but to make their suffering invisible.



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Elliptic, Internet Watch Foundation Team Up to Combat Crypto Financing of Child Abuse Material

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In brief

  • Blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic has become a member of the Internet Watch Foundation, a nonprofit set up to address online child sexual abuse materials.
  • In a 2024 report, the IWF found that cryptocurrencies were offered as a method of payment option on over 60% of child abuse websites with payment options.
  • CSAM websites are increasingly turning to privacy coins such as Monero, though Elliptic noted that they are “often only complementary to traceable assets.”

Blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic has become a member of the Internet Watch Foundation, as part of its ongoing efforts to combat the financing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) via cryptocurrency.

The partnership between the two parties means that Elliptic gains access to the IWF’s range of services, including its virtual currency alerts.

These alerts will provide the London-based company with real-time data on cryptocurrency transactions that involve the purchase of CSAM, identifying the payment networks used in the transactions and the wallet addresses.

By integrating with the IWF’s real-time alert system, Elliptic is aiming to better help its clients prevent transactions associated with child abuse and exploitation.

“IWF analysts find images and videos of some of the worst types of child sexual abuse on websites that profit from the sale of this horrific content,” said acting IWF CEO Derek Ray-Holl. “By working with us, Elliptic can help to disrupt the spread of this criminal imagery and stop this type of illegal purchasing in its tracks.”

Last year, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) sent a bipartisan open letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security describing crypto as the “payment of choice for child abuse material.”

Their assertion appears to be borne out by the IWF’s Annual Data & Insights Report 2024, which found that cryptocurrencies are the most commonly offered method of payment on commercial CSAM websites, with 60.87% of URLs that do not hide payment options enabling crypto transfers (or 518 out of 851 webpages).

In November 2022, the IWF published a report finding that CSAM websites accepting crypto payments had “doubled almost every year since 2015,” although with 1,014 such sites recorded in 2022, the figure doesn’t appear to have doubled since.

For Elliptic, partnering with the IWF to combat the spread of CSAM is one facet of its wider efforts to foster a safer digital ecosystem.

Giuseppe Fersini, Elliptic’s Head of Intel, told Decrypt that the firm is an “engaged member” of the IWF’s global alliance. “We support IWF’s vital mission not only through the integration of relevant data into our blockchain intelligence platform, but also through active participation in strategic discussions and knowledge-sharing around how payment systems, including cryptocurrencies, are exploited in the distribution of child sexual abuse material,” he added.

Privacy coins and crime

The past few years have witnessed an increase in CSAM websites making use of Monero and other privacy coins, according to a 2024 Chainalysis bulletin, which suggested that “Monero may be helping those CSAM vendors [which use Monero-friendly exchanges to] survive longer.”

Such usage raises a problem for organizations such as the IWF and Elliptic, which could potentially struggle to trace the flow of illicit crypto if more criminals use privacy tokens.

While acknowledging that such coins offer “ways to obscure the source and destination of funds,” Fersini also affirmed that they “are often only complementary to traceable assets” and may only be one element in a wider obfuscation strategy.

“This trend reinforces the need for advanced solutions and high-quality intelligence,” he adds. “Elliptic addresses this challenge by providing data capabilities that are asset-agnostic and optimized to detect patterns and connections even in the face of deliberate concealment.”

In terms of the future, the IWF is “looking to expand [its] Membership into the blockchain/crypto industry,” according to its Press Officer Cat McShane, who reminded Decrypt that blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis also works with the non-profit organization.

She says, “It is imperative that we disrupt the commercialization of CSAM as much as we can and having organizations like Elliptic on our side really aids this.”

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Trump Signs Bipartisan Act Targeting Deepfake Abuse and Online Exploitation

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In brief

  • The law mandates a 48-hour takedown of explicit images by tech platforms.
  • First Lady Melania Trump called the law a “national victory” in the fight to protect children.
  • Deepfake and revenge porn victims will now be federally protected under U.S. law.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law the bipartisan Take It Down Act, a sweeping measure that criminalizes the non-consensual online publication of intimate images, both authentic or AI-generated, and compels major tech platforms to remove such content within 48 hours of notification.

The law goes into effect immediately.

The signing ceremony also marked a rare symbolic moment as First Lady Melania Trump joined the president to add her signature. The law is a capstone of her recent public advocacy campaign focused on online exploitation and children’s safety in the digital age.

“This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially our young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused through non-consensual intimate imagery or NCII,” Melania Trump said.

“AI and social media are the digital candy of the next generation—sweet, addictive, and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,” she added. “But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs, and sadly, affect emotions and even be deadly.” 

The legislation comes amid a surge in reports of deepfake pornography and non-consensual image abuse. High-profile figures like Taylor Swift and Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as underage children, have seen AI-generated images of themselves shared online without consent, some of which have been explicit. 

The Take It Down Act is one of the first major federal responses to the threat posed by generative AI.

The law makes it a federal crime to publish or threaten to publish non-consensual intimate images of adults or minors, including deepfakes, with the intent to harm or harass. Violators face criminal penalties, including prison and fines.

For adult subjects, the bill prohibits the online publication of intimate visual depictions when it is intended to cause or does cause harm to the subject.

That includes where the depiction was published without the subject’s consent or, in the case of an authentic depiction, was created or obtained under circumstances where the adult had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

For minors, the bill covers when publication is intended to abuse or harass the minor or to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of a person. 

Public websites, online services, or apps that host user-generated content must establish a clear takedown process and eliminate duplicates of flagged content.

The bill received near-unanimous support in Congress, passing the House 409-2 and the Senate by unanimous consent.

Melania Trump had lobbied lawmakers directly to support the bill, hosting victims at a Capitol Hill roundtable and bringing Elliston Berry as her guest to the president’s address to Congress in March. 

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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