Content Warning: This story contains descriptions of drawings of child and animal pornography.
Feb. 7 started as a normal stream for Ian “Vaush” Kochinski. The political streamer has over 460,000 subscribers on YouTube and 100,000 on Twitch. Vaush was giving tips on men’s fashion until he accidentally opened a folder titled “TO BE SORTED.”
Alongside sub-folders with tax information, there was what appeared to be disturbing, drawn pornographic content. The drawings depicted underage anime characters, some inappropriately engaging with goblins and horses.
Even though the original stream on Twitch was set to private, recordings of the clip quickly gained speed on social media. The clip was viewed over 14.2 million times on one X/Twitter post. 4chan users also found the original images and their origins.
Users also shared clips of Kochinski over the past few years defending adult and child relationships. In one clip, he says, “I have yet to hear a convincing moral or legal argument as to why possession of child pornography should be illegal.”
The conversation stayed within the political sphere for a few days. But on Feb. 9, Ethan and Hila Klein of the h3 podcast brought the clip to the attention of their 2.3 million YouTube subscribers.
Kochinski responded with his own nearly two-hour stream where he attempted to defend the folder and his behavior. He claimed that he didn’t know any of the drawings were of underage children. He alleges he thought the people depicted just had “short-stack” builds and admitted that he “wants to fuck a woman as a horse.”
(Kochinski did not respond to our request for comment via email).
Kochinski took to Twitter/X on Feb. 13 to announce that he’s making “a response video.” He added, “It’s gonna be a big one though, so it’ll take a little while.”
Vaush has spent years as a political commentator, arguing with right-wing boogeymen like Tim Pool and Charlie Kirk. He even streamed with U.S. representative Ro Khanna in Washington D.C. late last year.
But Vaush’s defense of the grotesque content on his computer has alienated many who view that content as morally wrong to own. It might not be illegal, but showing it on stream to thousands of viewers was not a good move.
“The conception of this type of content normalizes and comforts people who would otherwise not even think of such things,” Ethan said on the first live stream about Vaush. “People who are more likely to act on their impulses or to buy actual [child pornography] to satisfy their sick desires.”
