Etika

Desmond Daniel Amofah was born on May 12, 1990,^{[‡ 1]} in Brooklyn, New York, to father Owuraku Amofah, a Ghanaian politician and lawyer from Kibi,^[5][6] and mother Sabrina Amofah.^[7][8] Amofah had several siblings, including an older brother, Randy Amofah (1982–2010), who died from an asthma attack.^[7] He also had a half-brother, Cardinal Valery, who has a YouTube account dubbed "IAM9INE."^[9]

Amofah attended the public school Shell Bank Junior High School for one year, and was pulled out of the school by his mother after Amofah got in several fights with other students; in a 2018 livestream, Amofah stated that his craziest fight took place at Shell Bank, in which he and another student had an intense fight over a girl. They became friends afterward.^{[‡ 2]}

Amofah attended Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice (SLJ), a small law-themed college preparatory public high school, and graduated from there in 2008. While he attended the school, Amofah made several DVDs in a series called "SLJ FAM."^{[‡ 3]} He was also in a club known as the Free Food Mafia.^{[‡ 4]} Amofah attended the SLJ reunion 10 years after graduation.^{[‡ 5]}

Prior to his YouTube career, Amofah was active in modeling and rapping, having released an independently produced mixtape titled Written in Ice in 2007 under his pseudonym "Iceman".^[8][10] In 2008, Amofah participated in two Grind Time Now rap battles.^[10] Amofah started modeling in 2011 and continued until 2015. He owned an account on the website Model Mayhem, where he stated he was "quite tall" and that his last measurement of height was "six feet, six inches."^{[‡ 6][11][12]}

Amofah stated in a tweet that the pseudonym "Etika" came from the 2003 video game Sonic Battle, as he was a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog series in his youth. In the game, players could input a cheat code titled "EkiTa", and when Amofah was 12, he simply switched the T and the K to create his username as he "liked that result better".^{[‡ 7][3][13]} He grew a high top fade after playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.^{[‡ 8]}

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Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough, with 2,736,074 residents in 2020.

Owuraku Amofah

Owuraku Amofah

Emmanuel Owuraku Amofah is a Ghanaian politician and lawyer from Kibi who served as a member of the Parliament of Ghana for Abuakwa Central constituency from 1992 to 1996. He is a former deputy communication minister and deputy tourism minister. In 1992, he founded the Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE) party. As a lawyer, he has worked in New York City as the CEO of Parking Ticket Busters, a ticket-broker business, as an attorney at Amofah Law Firm and as a one-time administrative law judge at the city's Parking Violations Bureau.

Kibi, Ghana

Kibi, Ghana

Kibi or Kyebi is a town and the capital of the East Akim Municipal District, a district in the Eastern Region of south Ghana, on the eastern slopes of the Atewa Range. Kibi lies at an altitude of 318 m and, in 2013, had a population of 11,677 people.

Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice

Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice

The Urban Assembly School for Law & Justice, often shortened to SLJ, is a small law-themed college preparatory public high school in Brooklyn, New York City. It is one of a group of 21 high and middle schools operated by the Urban Assembly, which do not require entrance examinations The school is housed in a courthouse building near the Brooklyn Bridge.

Mixtape

Mixtape

A mixtape is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette tape, CD, or digital playlist. The songs are either ordered sequentially or made into a continuous programme by beatmatching the songs and creating seamless transitions at their beginnings and endings with fades or abrupt edits. Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien described this definition of the mixtape as "perhaps the most widely practiced American art form".

Sonic Battle

Sonic Battle

Sonic Battle is a 2003 fighting video game developed by Sonic Team for the Game Boy Advance. It is the second fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the first game being Sonic the Fighters. It was released in Japan in December 2003 and in North America and Europe in early 2004. The game received a lukewarm response from critics.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main Sonic the Hedgehog games are platformers mostly developed by Sonic Team; other games, developed by various studios, include spin-offs in the racing, fighting, party and sports genres. The franchise also incorporates printed media, animations, feature films, and merchandise.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fifth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the seventh installment overall. It was released in October 2004 for the PlayStation 2, in June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox, and in November 2010 for Mac OS X. The game is set within an open world environment that players can explore and interact with at their leisure. The story follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home following his mother's murder and is drawn back into his former gang and a life of crime while clashing with corrupt authorities and powerful criminals. Carl's journey takes him across the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, which is based on California and Nevada and encompasses three major cities: Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas.

YouTube

Having previously used the YouTube account "TR1Iceman" since 2006, Amofah created a new YouTube account in 2012 to broadcast his gaming and reaction streams, under his original username "EWNetwork," short for "Etika World Network."^[13][14] Prior to the closure of his main channel on YouTube in 2018, he had more than 800,000 subscribers between his YouTube and Twitch channels, and within months after creating a second YouTube channel, known as "EtikaFRFX", he had gained more than 130,000 subscribers.^[15]

Amofah's content was typically Nintendo-focused.^[16] He frequently streamed reactions, often over-the-top, to Nintendo Direct presentations, which usually involved him screaming and falling out of his chair in elated shock, and tossing objects in his room around.^[2] One of Amofah's most famous reactions was his reaction to Mewtwo being revealed as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. 4, during which Amofah excitedly screams "Mewtwo!" several times.^[17] The video was Amofah's most viewed video on his "EWNetwork" channel, and the reaction was retweeted by the creator of the game, Masahiro Sakurai.^[18] Amofah's channel continued to grow in popularity as he made more videos centered around his reactions to gaming news and YouTube drama, and according to him, he was earning over $300,000 a year through stream donations.^[3]

Amofah dubbed his fans the "JOYCONBOYZ", after the Nintendo Switch controllers known as the Joy-Con,^[15] and would frequently end his videos with his signature catchphrase "Take care of yourselves, and of course, as usual, please have yourself a damn good one."^[19] In Japan, Amofah was commonly referred to under the nickname "Guile-kun" as a reference to his hairstyle, which resembled the character Guile from the fighting game Street Fighter.^[18][20] Despite focusing on Nintendo-related content, Amofah also did playthroughs of indie games (e.g., Undertale, Deltarune and Doki Doki Literature Club!), and he was also a fan of games such as Final Fantasy 7 and Minecraft.^[9] Amofah was also a fan of anime and Japanese culture, and did several livestreams of him watching series such as Attack on Titan and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure while giving commentary.^[18][3]

Amofah briefly changed his channel name to "Young Ramsay" in 2015 after cooking scallops, having been inspired by the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.^[3] Soon afterward, Ramsay himself followed Amofah on Twitter.^{[‡ 9]} In June 2017, Amofah did a livestream of him browsing the deep web and received an unexpected phone call on his personal phone number after ending the stream, which made Amofah feel uncomfortable and not want to go on the deep web anymore.^{[‡ 10]} On December 24, 2018, Amofah did a Christmas livestream which featured himself dressed as Santa Claus.^{[‡ 11]}

Fake Nintendo Switch and fake donors

In November 2016, two videos of Amofah's where he purported to have a Nintendo Switch console before its 2017 release gained notoriety and were scrutinized by fans. It was later revealed that the model Amofah was using was 3D-printed by fellow YouTuber "Sandqvist" at his request.^[16][21][22]

In June 2017, Amofah revealed himself to be the victim of multiple "chargebacks", or "fake donations" of large amounts of money sent to his PayPal account via stream donations, which would jostle Amofah with hundreds of dollars in processing fees.^[23]

Channel terminations and breakdowns

On October 23, 2018, Amofah was temporarily suspended from Twitter for using the word nigga in a tweet. He responded to the suspension by uploading a video of himself frequently saying the word and defending himself for using it. Amofah stated that the word had been adopted by black people "from a tool of hatred into a form of love" and should no longer be treated as a racial slur. During the video, Amofah name-checked rappers Travis Scott and Drake, who use the word in their songs.^[11][3] Two days later, Amofah uploaded pornography to his YouTube channel "EWNetwork" (then titled Etika), which violated YouTube's policies and consequently led to the channel's termination. He later had his second channel "EtikaFRFX" terminated in April 2019 for the same reason.^[24][25] He was also banned from Twitch that year for using a homophobic slur during a stream.^[26] Following the termination of his "EWNetwork" channel, Amofah posted cryptic messages to social media, including the statement "it's my turn to die", coupled with a screenshot of his terminated account. Several of his followers felt that the messages and posts were suicidal in nature, which quickly created a panic within his following.^[24][27] Amofah took to social media that evening to confirm his well-being, along with other streamers who professed to have seen him safe and sound in person, to allay his followers' fears.^[28] He later apologized on his subreddit r/EtikaRedditNetwork.^[24] On October 29, 2018, Amofah confirmed on his Twitch stream that he purposefully deleted his channel because he did not receive ad revenue from the channel.^[29]

On April 16, 2019, following the termination of his second channel "EtikaFRFX", Amofah posted several tweets about ending his life, the first one stating "Savonarola! I'm going to kill myself! You lot certainly have already. Shame on you all, silly humans."^{[‡ 12][30]} He then tweeted he would kill himself by shooting himself in the head.^[30] This tweet subsequently led to his detainment and hospitalization. Christine Cardona, who had dated Amofah from 2011 to 2017, confirmed his well-being, and that she had been "observing him all day".^[30][31] Days later, Amofah posted a photoshopped picture of himself holding a gun, which Cardona later confirmed was fake.^[4][24]

Amofah on June 4, 2019, 15 days before his disappearance

On April 29, after tweeting a vast quantity of cryptic messages, including homophobic and ethnic slurs (that were promptly deleted),^[32] he blocked close friends of his and other YouTubers.^[24][26] Later that day, he live-streamed himself being detained by police to over 19,000 viewers on Instagram Live, after a concerned fan notified police about his alarmingly erratic nature during a livestream.^[24][33] Before being detained, Amofah shouted phrases and quotes from his apartment window, including the quote "The revolution will not be televised, only felt," which he also posted to Twitter on several occasions.^{[‡ 13][34]}

On April 30, Amofah was interviewed by Keemstar on his YouTube channel "DramaAlert", in which Amofah stated he was the "antichrist" and that he wanted to "purge all life".^[35][36] Amofah was detained again later that same week for assaulting a police officer.^[37][2] Later that day, Amofah did a livestream titled "Stupid Monkey", during which he ate a carton of raw eggs and made several monkey noises without saying anything.^{[‡ 14]}

Amofah's erratic behavior around this time led some of his followers to take the events preceding his suicide as a humorous performance by Amofah, rather than signs of him struggling with his mental health. The video where Amofah assaulted a police officer was posted online with the caption "LMFAOOOOOOOO", and people who witnessed the event were laughing. During the majority of Amofah's livestreams in 2019, most of the viewers in the chat spammed clown emojis.^[2]

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Nintendo

Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops and releases both video games and video game consoles.

Nintendo Direct

Nintendo Direct

Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentation or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's upcoming content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began in Japan and North America with the first edition on October 21, 2011, before later expanding to Europe, Australia, and South Korea.

Mewtwo

Mewtwo

Mewtwo is a Pokémon, a fictional creature from Nintendo and Game Freak. Created by Ken Sugimori, it debuted in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue, and later appeared in subsequent sequels and spin-off titles, such as Pokken Tournament. In the video games, the player can fight and capture Mewtwo in order to subsequently pit it against other Pokémon. The player first learns of Mewtwo late in Pokémon Red and Blue by reading research documents left in a ruined laboratory on Cinnabar Island. Mewtwo is regarded as one of the series' strongest Pokémon, and was the strongest in the original games in terms of base statistic distribution. It is known as the "Genetic Pokémon" and is a Legendary Pokémon, a special group of Pokémon that are very rare and usually very powerful. Mewtwo has also appeared in various animated adaptations of the franchise.

Masahiro Sakurai

Masahiro Sakurai

Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of Meteos in 2005 and directed Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012.

Joy-Con

Joy-Con

Joy-Con are the primary game controllers for the Nintendo Switch video game console. They consist of two individual units, each containing an analog stick and an array of buttons. They can be used while attached to the main Nintendo Switch console unit, or detached and used wirelessly; when detached, a pair of Joy-Con can be used by a single player, or divided between two as individual controllers. The controllers have been criticized for the tendency of the analog sticks to register inputs when not being touched.

Guile (Street Fighter)

Guile (Street Fighter)

Major Guile is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He debuted as one of the original eight World Warriors in 1991's Street Fighter II and appeared in the game's subsequent updates. In the games he is portrayed as a major in the United States Air Force who is seeking to avenge the death of his Air Force buddy Charlie at the hands of the villainous dictator M. Bison.

Deltarune

Deltarune

Deltarune is a role-playing video game actively being developed by Toby Fox. The player controls a teenage human, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal the "Dark Fountains" prophesied to end the world, the group meets the inhabitants of the "Dark World", some of whom try to stop them. The combat system is based on bullet hell attacks the player must dodge. Similar to Undertale, enemy encounters can be resolved peacefully or through violence.

Doki Doki Literature Club!

Doki Doki Literature Club!

Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC) is a 2017 freeware visual novel developed by American independent game studio Team Salvato for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The game was initially distributed through itch.io, and later became available on Steam. The story is told from the perspective of a high school student who reluctantly joins the school's literature club on the insistence of his childhood best friend, and is given the option to romantically pursue three of its four female members. Doki Doki Literature Club! features a non-traditional plot structure with multiple endings and unlockable cutscenes with each of the main characters. Although the game initially appears to be a lighthearted dating simulator, it is in fact a pyschological horror game that extensively breaks the fourth wall.

Minecraft

Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being fully released in November 2011, with Notch stepping down and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten taking over development. Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history, with over 238 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players as of 2021 and has been ported to several platforms.

Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It is set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as Titans; the story follows Eren Yeager, who vows to exterminate the Titans after they bring about the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mother. It was serialized in Kodansha's monthly magazine Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine from September 2009 to April 2021, with its chapters collected in 34 tankōbon volumes.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump in 2005. The series is divided into nine story arcs, each following a new protagonist bearing the "JoJo" nickname. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is the largest ongoing manga series published by Shueisha by number of volumes, with its chapters collected in 131 tankōbon volumes as of September 2021.

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon James Ramsay is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a total of seven. His signature restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, has held three Michelin stars since 2001. After rising to fame on the British television miniseries Boiling Point in 1999, Ramsay became one of the best-known and most influential chefs in the world.

At midnight on June 20, 2019, a video titled "I'm sorry" was uploaded to Amofah's personal YouTube channel "TR1Iceman".^[27] In the video, Amofah admitted to having mental health issues, struggling with the attention he had gained from streaming and apologized for pushing people away from him. YouTube soon removed the video for violating its Community Guidelines, though Amofah's fans reposted the video to other outlets.^[27] After leaving some of his personal belongings on the pedestrian walkway, Amofah jumped from the Manhattan Bridge and drowned.^[38]

Amofah was reported missing to the New York Police Department (NYPD) the day after the "I'm sorry" video was uploaded.^[39][40] While the NYPD began its search, fellow Internet personalities and his fans tried to reach out to him to offer their help and show their appreciation for his work over the years.^[41] On the night of June 19, the same day of Amofah's disappearance, his belongings were discovered on the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge. They included a backpack, wallet, laptop bag, cell phone, a change of clothes, and a Nintendo Switch.^[40][42]

On the evening of June 24, a body was observed near Pier 16, approximately half a mile (0.8 km) down the East River from where Amofah's belongings were recovered, and reported to the NYPD.^[43] By the morning of June 25, the NYPD and emergency medical services had recovered the body, confirmed it was Amofah, and stated that he was dead at the point of recovery.^[39][44] The following day, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the cause of death was suicide by drowning.^[45][46]

Reactions

Amofah's death highlighted social media platforms' handling of posts by users who appear at risk of mental illness or who are contemplating suicide. YouTube, in removing Amofah's final video, stated that removal of such videos is standard practice in order to "reduce the potential for copycat acts of self-harm, videos that express suicidal ideation", and as part of this, sent information to Amofah's account related to national suicide hotlines in order to provide help.^[25]

Following his death, several YouTubers posted tributes to Amofah on Twitter and YouTube.^[25][47] PewDiePie was one of the first YouTubers to post a tribute to Amofah, stating in a tweet: "Hard to grasp that he’s actually gone, left us way too soon. You will continue to live on in our hearts. Rest in peace Etika." James Charles also took to Twitter, stating: "RIP Etika. My heart is so so heavy hearing this news. I hope that the community FINALLY realizes that creators are human beings with real, valid feelings." The official "YouTube Creators" Twitter account also posted a tribute to Amofah, stating: "We mourn the loss of Etika, a beloved member of our gaming creator community." Rapper Lil Nas X posted a tribute to Amofah, stating that he "didn’t know Amofah very well" but did know that he "inspired many and made a lot of people very happy."^[47]

Mental health researchers found several videos Amofah had posted that showed evidence of his troubled state but were taken as jokes by some of his viewers, rather than as genuine signs of mental illness.^[2][4] As a result, some took Amofah's final video as another joke and disregarded any concern over his well-being; YouTuber Keemstar initially thought Amofah's final video was a premeditated publicity stunt, stating after Amofah's death, "I was never fully convinced that he was mentally ill or in trouble because of our private convos."^[2] The aforementioned mental health researchers stressed the need to inform more people on social media about the signs of mental illness, depression, and suicidal thoughts so that they can better recognize when people in a mindset similar to Amofah's are in danger and need support.^[2][4] The circumstances surrounding Amofah's death also prompted discussions on social media about dealing with mental health as a content creator. In an article from The Verge, internet personalities such as Asmongold and CoryxKenshin lamented how the negativity targeted towards content creators can be detrimental to their well-being, and that people who leave negative remarks on social media do so with the perception that online content creators are immune to such criticism, due to their ability to make money online.^[48] Fiona Nova, content creator and friend of Amofah, also condemned his fans on Twitter for disregarding his signs of mental illness as jokes, while Cardona stated that Amofah was attracted to the vitriol he received.^[48] Writing about the struggles with mental health that Amofah faced, Patricia Hernandez of Polygon reflected on how Amofah wasn't taken seriously enough both from his fans and from mental health facilities.^[2] Hernandez remarked on Amofah's situation that "it's the gnawing, uneasy realization that everything was unfolding in front of our eyes, clearly and openly, and it didn't make any difference. It's the sinking feeling that maybe, just maybe, we — viewers, social media, platforms like YouTube — let this happen."^[2]

Keemstar briefly became a target of some of Amofah's fans, who blamed him for Amofah's suicide due to the "DramaAlert" interview and statements made in tweets before and following the interview.^[36] Keemstar later posted screenshots of a series of texts allegedly sent to him by Amofah's mother Sabrina, which stated that "Etika loved Keemstar's show" and had only wanted to make a memorable appearance on it.^[36] Despite Sabrina's alleged defense of Keemstar, he was later accused of influencing Amofah's death in May 2020 by Internet personality Ethan Klein.^[49][50] In response to this accusation, he stated: "His mother came out with a statement saying that I am in no way responsible for the tragic loss of Etika, and he’s still doing it. He just made this big rant and said stuff that I have never said."^[50] Keemstar also claimed that Amofah's friends and family had told Klein to stop using Amofah's suicide to attack him.^[50] Shortly after Amofah's death, YouTuber ImJayStation posted a video where he attempted to contact Amofah from beyond the grave, which was widely criticized for being disrespectful.^[51]

Discover more about Disappearance and death related topics

Eastern Time Zone

Eastern Time Zone

The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small portion of westernmost Brazil in South America, along with certain Caribbean and Atlantic islands.

Manhattan Bridge

Manhattan Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The main span is 1,480 ft (451 m) long, with the suspension cables being 3,224 ft (983 m) long. The bridge's total length is 6,855 ft (2,089 m). It is one of four toll-free vehicular bridges connecting Manhattan Island to Long Island; the nearby Brooklyn Bridge is just slightly further downtown, while the Queensboro and Williamsburg bridges are to the north.

East River

East River

The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens on Long Island from the Bronx on the North American mainland, and also divides Manhattan from Queens and Brooklyn, also on Long Island.

Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York

Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York (OCME) is a department within the city government that investigates cases of persons who die within New York City from criminal violence; by casualty or by suicide; suddenly, when in apparent good health; when unattended by a physician; in a correctional facility; or in any suspicious or unusual manner. The OCME also investigates when an application is made pursuant to law for a permit to cremate the body of a deceased person.

PewDiePie

PewDiePie

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage have made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators. He has been portrayed in the media as a figurehead for YouTube, especially in the genre of gaming.

James Charles

James Charles

James Charles Dickinson is an American beauty YouTuber and makeup artist. While working as a local makeup artist in his hometown of Bethlehem, New York, Charles started a YouTube channel, where he posts makeup tutorials. In 2016, he became the first male brand ambassador for CoverGirl after a tweet featuring his makeup went viral online.

Lil Nas X

Lil Nas X

Montero Lamar Hill, known by his stage name Lil Nas X, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single "Old Town Road", which first achieved viral popularity in early 2019 before climbing music charts internationally and becoming diamond certified by November of that same year, moving over ten million certified units in streaming and sales combined.

Keemstar

Keemstar

Daniel M. Keem, known online as Keemstar, is an American YouTuber, podcaster, and streamer. He is best known for being the host of the Internet popular culture news show DramaAlert.

Asmongold

Asmongold

Asmongold, also known as ZackRawrr, is an American Twitch streamer, YouTuber, content creator, internet celebrity, and prominent World of Warcraft (WoW) personality. He is widely recognized for his charismatic and engaging personality, his World of Warcraft gameplay, in-depth knowledge and expertise of the game, humorous commentary while playing various MMORPGs, most notably World of Warcraft, and his ability to entertain and engage with his audience. Asmongold's content primarily focuses on World of Warcraft, but he has also branched out to cover other video games and a variety of topics related to gaming culture. Asmongold is a co-founder and co-owner of the popular streaming, gaming, and content creation organization One True King (OTK), based in Austin, Texas, consisting of a variety of online content creators. Asmongold is also a co-owner of Starforge Systems, a computer company specialized in selling prebuilt gaming PCs.

CoryxKenshin

CoryxKenshin

Cory DeVante Williams, known online as CoryxKenshin, is an American YouTuber. Williams joined YouTube in 2009. Known for his comedic playthroughs of horror games, Williams was ranked the fourth top creator in the United States in 2021. As of December 2022, his channel has over fifteen million subscribers.

H3h3Productions

H3h3Productions

h3h3Productions is a YouTube channel created and hosted by Ethan Klein and Hila Klein, an Israeli-American husband-and-wife duo. Their content consists of reaction videos and sketch comedy in which they satirize internet culture. The H3 Podcast is their podcast channel that has been running since 2017 and has been the subject of various controversies and offenses, resulting in its banning at times.

ImJayStation

ImJayStation

Jason Matthew Ethier, more popularly known as ImJayStation or JayStation, is a Canadian Internet personality and former YouTuber.

Amofah's death led to numerous tributes across social media honoring his career.^[25][52] In 2019, The New York Times Magazine posted a tribute acknowledging Amofah's impact as a YouTuber, with writer Jamie Lauren Keiles noting that his content's appeal "had always been figuring out which parts were real," and that he "was himself until the end."^[3] The same year, Kotaku included Amofah in their list of the top gamers of the year, remarking that his death prompted many of his fans and other internet personalities to discuss the impact of mental health on social media.^[52] BBC listed the news of Amofah's death as one of the biggest technology news stories of 2019, noting the various commemorations of him throughout the year; writer Leo Kelion stated that "Etika's claim in his final video that 'this world's gonna forget me' shows no sign of coming true any time soon."^[53]

Following Amofah's suicide, both fans and YouTubers on social media asked for YouTube to re-upload Amofah's final video to help memorialize him.^[54][55] A Change.org petition was started and initially garnered more than 380,000 signatures,^[41] but later dropped to 197,000 signatures after many fraudulent signatures from Internet bots were removed. The petition also asked for Amofah's original channel to be restored to preserve his legacy.^[54][56] Another Change.org petition with over a million signatures, which later dropped to over 200,000 for similar reasons, called for Amofah to be buried at YouTube headquarters, which he stated was his wish during an earlier livestream.^[57] YouTube also attracted criticism for not including a tribute to Amofah in the 2019 installment of YouTube Rewind.^[53][58]

A memorial was erected on the Manhattan Bridge by Amofah's fans following his suicide in June 2019

Several days after his death, fans erected a memorial on Amofah's behalf on the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge, leaving letters, fan art, Twizzlers, Nintendo-related products, and other memorabilia.^[59] In the Super Smash Bros. community, a tournament was held as a tribute to Amofah featuring the antagonist Ridley from the video game series Metroid, a character Amofah often played.^[60] He was also awarded the "Best Reaction" award at the 3rd Annual Smashies Awards which took place at Super Smash Con 2019.^[61]

On June 25, 2019, YouTuber and web designer Abe Hunter announced he was the owner and operator of Amofah's website,^{[‡ 15]} and subsequently converted it into a fundraiser site where 100% of the profits were to be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Amofah's name.^{[‡ 16][62]} On July 15, 2019, on behalf of the Joy-Con Boyz community, Abe Hunter donated the $11,315.25 raised in memory of Amofah.^{[62][‡ 17]} Several days later on July 21, 2019, fellow YouTuber PewDiePie and American actor Jack Black started a fundraiser on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe for the NAMI.^[53] PewDiePie and Black streamed themselves playing Minecraft together to raise money for their fundraiser, with the former donating $10,000 and the stream raising over $30,000 in total.^[63] Later in 2019, Abe Hunter and Double-A worked with mural artist BK Foxx and graffiti artists Kestaadm and JMZWalls to create a 40-feet-long mural completed by November 2019 dedicated to Amofah in Bushwick, Brooklyn.^[62] The mural was created to celebrate Amofah's life and to help bring awareness to mental health issues.^[19][62] The mural's location was added as a virtual "PokéStop" in the augmented reality game Pokémon Go in February 2020 after over 350,000 people requested Niantic to add it in memory of Amofah.^[64][65]

In August 2019, an Indiegogo campaign was started on Amofah's behalf. The charity campaign was created to earn donations for The Jed Foundation. Contributors to the campaign received a custom-made pair of Etika-themed Joy-Con shells dubbed "Etikons". The campaign had raised over $10,000 by the end of 2019. Additional Etikons had been made and sold online after the campaign, but according to the individual selling the shells, Nintendo had sent them a cease and desist letter around September 2020 demanding they halt all further sales of the remaining stock due to the use of trademarked terms on the shells. Nintendo subsequently received criticism for this decision.^[66][67]

Amofah's Twitter account was hacked on August 24, 2019, which resulted in the account being suspended. The hacker wrote a series of offensive and disrespectful tweets, which gained mass backlash from Amofah's fans and friends. In response to the hacking, Twitter temporarily suspended Amofah's account and later reinstated it after the hacker's tweets were deleted.^[68] On February 14, 2020, Amofah's Twitter account was suspended a second time, but it was reinstated following requests from Amofah's fans.^[65]

In February 2021, fans of Amofah pointed out that the second DLC Fighter Pass for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate contains several characters Amofah had expressed a strong liking towards, including Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Min Min from Arms.^[17]

In January 2022, a group named EtikaPunks produced a non-fungible token (NFT) collection of the same name, featuring pixelated drawings of Amofah in a style similar to CryptoPunks, one of which featured a bridge in the background (alluding to his suicide). The collection was condemned by Amofah's fans who considered it disrespectful and an attempt to "monetize Etika's passing".^[69]

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