G08: Social Media & Identity: Kai Cenat

The Amazon-owned video-streaming platform Twitch has banned one of its most popular livestreamers.

Kai Cenat holds the record for having the most subscriptions to his channel, with more than 300,000 at its peak.

Now, a message that appears when visiting his channel says it is "temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's... terms of service" and he has tweeted: "Banned."

Twitch has banned its most subscribed streamer Kai Cenat for the fifth time, and fans are confused about why.

1. Young influencers don’t have relevant experience understanding influence or managing fame.
2. Gen Z and Millennials relate more to influencers than to traditional celebrities.
3. Parasocial attachment increases an influencer’s persuasiveness because they feel like a friend.

Thousands of people overran Union Square Park and surrounding lanes of traffic in New York City on Friday as a popular Twitch streamer, who police say will now face charges, held a video game giveaway.

Kai Cenat said in his first public comments that he is "beyond disappointed" with the large group that flooded Union Square park Friday afternoon for what was supposed to be a "safe and fun" giveaway.

In a Twitch livestream titled "First stream after New York," Cenat condemned the crowd "running around and destroying this and destroying that" and vowed to "do it in the correct way" in the future.

Kai Cenat is a perfect example of the new type of celebrity. How did he summon a crowd of thousands to Manhattan last week?