Pokimane petitions for anonymous mode after constant harassment while playing Valorant

The life of a videogame streamer often involves dealing with a certain amount of hate for no particular reason. This gets even more common if you're as big of a personality as one Imane "Pokimane" Anys and even worse if you happen to be female.

(Credit: Pokimane)

The 23-year-old personality that became renowned for her League of Legends and Fortnite streams, has been dwelling into Riot's newest venture, Valorant, where she's found several instances of harassment and hostility towards her.

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Fed up with the constant barrage of hate comments, she took to Twitter to ask the developers to add an "anonymous mode", as she was tired of being abused with sexist language.

Naturally, the first responses she got were to mute their microphones, with Pokimane making a fair point of this being a counterproductive solution, depriving the streamer of possibly missing out on important callouts, key in a game like Valorant.

This isn't the first time Pokimane has complained about toxicity while playing Valorant, with one particular tweet being quoted by Valorant's game director, Joe Ziegler.

"Please be civil to anyone you meet in-game, most people are learning, and it can be frustrating for a variety of reasons."

Just last week, a Riot employee suffered this type of harassment first hand, blasting the toxic behaviour on social media.

Toxicity isn't exclusive to Riot's games, however, they're in a prime position with Valorant's mass appeal to set a precedent that could serve as an example on how to deal with online vitriol.