After facing backlash over his return to streaming, Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo has offered an apology.
Mizkif was accused of covering up his friend’s sexual assault earlier in 2022, causing his organization OTK to investigate the claims. The investigation recently came back without finding him guilty, but many in the streaming community have still been frustrated with his behavior surrounding the sensitive topic.
In response, Mizkif has offered an apology to the community and stated that he would “be better.”
Mizkif responds to criticism over “comeback stream” in 2022
In September of 2022, OTK hired a third-party legal firm to investigate Mizkif’s possible involvement in covering up his friend’s sexual assaults. During this time, Mizkif took a break from streaming and social media.
Then, in October, Mizkif hosted a since-deleted comeback livestream. During this stream, he spent time doing the usual — reacting to streamer drama and playing video games. But he also reacted to an old skit that was meant to satirize sexual harassment corporate training videos. The streaming community was stunned at his decision to use such a video and many accused him of not taking the situation seriously. Some even felt he was mocking sexual harassment.
Then at the end of 2022, OTK stated that the investigation had concluded and no evidence of Mizkif’s involvement in the situation was found. But OTK added that Mizkif had a “lack of empathy” and expressed “ignorance” with the topic of sexual assault. In response, OTK suspended Mizkif from his board duties “effective immediately.” Meanwhile, he will be on “monitored probation.”
In response to the update from OTK, Mizkif uploaded an apology video where he called the comeback stream “embarrassing” and “unacceptable.”
“I was completely tone deaf to such a serious situation. I’m so sorry for how I acted. It was completely insensitive. I want to apologize to everyone but especially victims of sexual assault. The way I behaved was horrible. I will be better. I will learn from this situation,” Mizkif said.
Mizkif added that he doesn’t want to be better for only himself but for his community. With an immense following, Mizkif knew he has a lot of influence in the streaming community. Instead of saying all the ways he’d change, however, Mizkif said that he’s going to show it and make better content.
“The way I behaved was horrible, and I will be better and I will learn from this situation. I want to be better for not only myself but for my audience. I want my influence on this world to be positive, and I don’t want anybody to deem the way I acted in that first stream as acceptable or OK because it was not,” Mizkif said.
Mizkif has returned to streaming on Twitch. His most recent stream had him telling fans to watch his apology before playing Mario Party with some other streamers.
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