Twitch star WestCOL must educate followers after anti-gay rant
The Colombian Supreme Court has ruled against Luis Villa, known as WestCOL .(@westcol on Instagram)
Colombian influencer Luis Villa, know online as WestCOL, has been ordered to share information about the effects of homophobic bigotry and attend a course on LGBTQ+ rights after he posted a violent rant about the community.
Luis Villa, known by his username WestCOL, has millions of followers across his YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and X/Twitter accounts.
In 2022, the Twitch streamer shared a video entitled “What if my son comes out trans?” in which he described, in slur-laden, graphic detail how he would abuse his child if he was not straight or cis.
Villa said that if his son were gay he would shoot him dead by putting “17 holes” in him, adding, in equally derogatory detail, that if his child came out as trans, he would use a long implement to sexual assault him so he can “see that that is not good”.
Following the rant, a complaint was filed by José Francisco Montufar Rodríguez, an LGBTQ+ activist and lawyer, who said Villa’s behaviour “normalises homicide, discrimination and sexual violence” against queer people.
Colombia’s Supreme Court found that despite the video being removed, it could have been widely disseminated across social media because it remained up for about a year and was only deleted when YouTube decided it violated the platform’s policies.
“The expressions of the perpetrator on their social networks are not only discriminatory, but also materialise hate speech,” the court’s ruling read, according to El Espectador.
“They have the potential to incite and promote violence against the LGBTIQ+ population and, specifically, the transgender and homosexual population, given that the plaintiff referred to the possibility of committing violent acts against the life and integrity of these people, including their own family, for the sole reason of identifying themselves as transgender and homosexual people.
“As this is direct hate speech, it is not protected by the presumption of constitutional coverage derived from the right to freedom of expression.”
The court ruled 23-year-old Villa must attend a training session on the rights of LGBTIQ+ people, offered by the Ministry of Justice and Law, and publish content on his social media accounts detailing the effects anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry has on people.
During the case, Montufar Rodríguez asked for Villa’s WestCOL accounts to be closed altogether, but the court decided this would be disproportionate and akin to censorship.
Villa attempted to justify his actions by saying the comments were just black humour, describing his style of content creation as one in which “making dark and heavy jokes is very normal”.
“I am a person who became famous out of nowhere and does not mince his words,” he said in an apology video shared on social media, America Colombia reported. “I’m a little guy, don’t give me so much importance.”
It is not known if Villa actually has any children.
Commenting on the outcome of the case, Montufar Rodríguez is quoted by Business Insider as saying: “I feel very happy. It is a history-making sentence in my country.”
