It would appear that Twitch has struck again against another female streamer dressed in sportswear, branding the attire as unsavory and inappropriate. This time the target of the ban was Cinthya “CinCinBear” Alicea. She claims that her clothing was the reason for the temporary ban, which consisted of a sports bra.
The news was first released on the Twitch Partner Bans Twitter account. Following this, CinCinBear apparently confirmed that she had in fact been banned on her Discord chat. Twitch seems to be engaging in these kinds of bans more frequently than before, and streamers and viewers are becoming fed up with the ridiculousness of the situation.
A fan on Twitter made the comparison that the moderation team at Twitch seems perfectly content to allow streamers who engage in behavior that is racist, sexist, homophobic, and overall toxic, but seem ready and eager to ban women for showing less skin than one would see at a public swimming pool. The ban appears to only be for 24 hours.
Other female streamers have also been banned this week for reasons that are equally ridiculous. Popular Overwatch streamer Fareeha was banned for hosting a “lingerie” stream, which amounted to wearing her workout clothes of shorts that go down to her knees and a sports bra that shows her midriff. Since then, she was placed on a 90-day probation period.
A few days later, Bridgett “Bridgett” Devoue returned to streaming following a three day ban for a reason that remains a mystery today, since she was never provided a specific answer to her inquiries. Her stream kicked off with a joke, stating “It’s tough out here for an egirl”, and decided to wear a large hoodie to ensure she was dressed so modestly it would be impossible to ban her again.
Bridgett is an interesting case because her streams are often considered to move into NSFW territory in the chat, which could have triggered the ban. At a fundamental level, the issue lies with a lack of transparency from Twitch regarding why these bans are issues in the first place.
As these bans continue to occur, Twitch opens itself up to an eventual migration of streamers from its platform to an alternative. Streamers should be able to create their content without a surprise ban that can affect their viewership and income.
Women are increasingly being targeted for this sort of ban, and Twitch needs to step up the competency of its moderation team to be able to tell the difference between something that is NSFW, like Amouranth flashing her audience, versus women just wearing comfortable workout clothing.