2019 has been an incredibly rough year for Twitch. The platform has struggled to handle the large wave of controversies brought on by its content creators over the past 12 months, even creating its own issues along the way.

Breaking Twitch's community guidelines has become common behavior on the platform, leaving staff scrambling to put out fires. In some ways, staff dealt with certain problems quite well – in other cases... not so much. Here are the top five streamer controversies of 2019.

1. Alinity's Cat

Alinity Cat Abuse Meme
Alinity Cat Abuse Meme

It wouldn't be a true streamer controversy flashback without mentioning Alinity and her cat throw heard round-the-world. For those who might've forgotten, Alinity created one of the biggest controversies of the year when she tossed her cat Milo over her head during a live broadcast on Twitch. She also gave her cat a kiss after taking a swig of vodka, triggering a negative reaction from the poor thing.

The cat was deemed unharmed in both cases, but that didn't stop the internet from rallying together against the streamer. Petitions were formed to get her banned, PETA got involved, and the wellness of all of her pets was brought into question. In the end, Alinity remained unpunished to the outrage of many, implying bias in Twitch staff's handling of suspensions.

RELATED: The Cat Throwing Controversy Has Barely Affected Alinity's Followers At All

2. Dr Disrespect E3 Bathroom

One of the most shocking controversies to arise on Twitch during 2019 was Dr Disrespect's sudden ban due to a privacy concern – The Doc choosing to continue his very first IRL stream even when inside a bathroom.

The historic stream took place during E3 2019, The Doc maintaining character as he roamed the conference floor; Even though his first IRL stream brought initial success, his lack of experience quickly surfaced when he made the poor judgement call to enter the public restrooms while streaming. If Twitch's guidelines weren't enough to justify the ban, California’s “Invasion of Privacy” law certainly did the trick.

Eventually Dr Disrespect returned to Twitch, addressing the issues out-of-character and offering his apologies for the mess-up. Clearly Guy Beahm, the man behind the character, took the incident very seriously, as he displayed humility and sincerity throughout the apology.

3. Dellor Keyboard Ban

Dellor is one of the first-ever "rage" streamers to rise to fame, making a name for himself by showing large amounts of anger when losing, often wrecking his equipment along the way. This isn't to say Dellor doesn't have skill, considering he performs at a high level in games such as PUBG and Overwatch, to name a few.

Nevertheless, he pushed the limits a bit too far for Twitch's comfort zone, receiving an indefinite ban from the platform upon violently smashing his keyboard during a stream. The reason cited was self-harm, as Dellor smashed the keyboard on his head during the stunt.

Many rushed to the defense of Dellor, such as Fortnite legend Tfue, but the streamer turned out fine in the end, receiving a large amount of support from fans when swapping over to YouTube.

RELATED: Tfue Protests Dellor's Permanent Twitch Ban By Doing The Same Thing That Got Dellor Banned

4. #Twitchoverparty

Perhaps Twitch's largest mistake of the year was its extremely poor decision to promote other channels on Ninja's old Twitch account when the streaming superstar moved to Mixer. As a result, a profile containing NSFW adult content appeared at the top of the page for around two hours.

Ninja isn't known for publishing serious statements very often, so the Twitter video drew a massive amount of attention to Twitch's misstep. In the scathing rant, Ninja seemed to be holding his anger back as he bashed Twitch's decision to piggyback off of his brand without his permission, ending the video with an apology to those who accidentally view the NSFW content. This incident led to the tag "Twitchoverparty" to trend on Twitter.

This prompted a personal apology directly from the CEO of Twitch, Emmet Shear – an apology that most believe was entirely necessary. In the apology tweet, many believe Emmet wasn't entirely honest about their "promotional experiment," mainly due to the customized message users would receive upon arriving on Ninja's old channel. Either way, the situation was a bad look for Twitch.

5. All The Women Who Got Banned For Their Clothes

Lastly, the culmination of all of the bans on female Twitch streamers in 2019 was... a considerable amount. The biggest issue Twitch ran into was its wild inconsistency in reasoning. Some women were banned for wearing something as simple as an entirely SFW cosplay, when others were let off the hook for revelations far greater.

Even when Twitch does punish the correct people, sometimes the actual severity of the ban wouldn't add up. For instance, Amouranth was banned for only three days for flashing her audience through her shorts on stream, yet Overwatch streamer Fareeha was put on 90-day probation for revealing nothing but workout clothing and CinCinBear was banned for a day for wearing a sports bra.

Needless to say, Twitch has had its hands full with situations to deal with throughout 2019. However, most of these controversies could've been easily avoided if the platform was more clear regarding each controversial ban's reasoning and more consistent as to who they ban. Right now, favoritism, inconsistency, and lack of clarity are all issues that plague Twitch, but if changes are made, the company has hope for a much better year in 2020.

Sources: Twitter

NEXT: Somebody Made A Montage Of Alinity’s Dog Being Inappropriate And It’s Weird