I've not watched any of this, however there were investigations and "investigators interviewed Pormanove and one of his co-streamers who both appeared to be victims of violence and humiliation. They “strongly denied being victims of violence, stating that the events were staged in order to `generate a buzz’ and make money.” ". That seems to me that this was simulated torture, or at the very least consensual torture. I've watched and enjoyed many episodes of Jackass and I'd consider some of the things they did to be a form of torture... this just seems to be the natural progression of that genre of 'shock entertainment', which unfortunately went too far in this case.