During TwitchCon 2019, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear took to the stage to address the controversy surrounding the company's inconsistent moderation policies. At the time he admitted that "We haven't always been consistent in our enforcement in the past."
This news came as a surprise to absolutely no one as he reassured viewers that the company has a "Head of Trust and Safety" and is "building up to consistently and fairly apply the rules all over Twitch." We were also promised transparency in the wordiest interview we've ever seen which somehow manages to say virtually nothing.
Now that a couple of months have passed, the question is: are streamers being treated more fairly? To explore this, we've rounded up stories of the bans and potential breach of service incidents we've seen since TwitchCon took place at the end of September, detailing the streamer, channel size, offense, and punishment.
October's Offenses
Streamer: Velvet 7 Size of Channel: 93k+ Offense: Unknown, but both bans confirmed to be "a Twitch error." Consequence: 5 week ban, followed by a short ban while streaming, less than a week later.
Full Story: Streamer Velvet Has Panic Attack Over Twitch's Unfair And Incorrect Bans
Streamer: Dellor Size of Channel: 500k+ Offense: "Self-Harm" for breaking a keyboard with his head. Consequence: Permanent ban, leading to a crisis (and thankfully a comeback.)
Full Story: Dellor Confirms Permanent Twitch Ban, Says He’s Planning His Next Move
Streamer: Brad Radke Size of Channel: 500+ Offense: Played Call of Duty with WWE Superstar Randy Orton who used a racial slur while live. Consequence: None.
Full Story: Streamer Who Hosted Randy Orton Weighs In On Racial Slur Controversy
Streamer: Knut Spildrejorde Size of Channel: 90k+ Offense: Unknown, but likely to be hate speech for offensive comments made during broadcast. Consequence: 30 day ban.
Full Story: Knut Banned On Twitch For Bringing Trans Sex Workers To Andy Milonakis Poker Game
Streamer: Unknown Size of Channel: 0 Offense: Inappropriate violent content. Consequence: Channel removed.
Full Story: German Synagogue Shooter Streamed His Attack On Twitch
Streamer: Tfue Size of Channel: 11.4M+ Offense: Broke a keyboard over his knee to protest Dellor's ban. Consequence: None known.
Full Story: Tfue Protests Dellor's Permanent Twitch Ban By Doing The Same Thing That Got Dellor Banned
Streamer: ExoHydraX Size of Channel: Approx 24k+ Offense: "Suggestive clothing." Consequence: Permanent ban, now appears to be back on a new channel.
Full Story: Twitch Streamer Perma Banned Due To "Suggestive" Clothing After Being Harassed
Streamer: Alinity Size of Channel: 994k+ Offense: A wardrobe malfunction that resulted in prolonged underwear flashing. Consequence: None known.
Full Story: Alinity Has Accidental Wardrobe Malfunction Live On Twitch
During October, we yet again saw more inconsistency and errors, with the largest error being the back to back bans faced by Velvet_7 for doing absolutely nothing.
In terms of inconsistency, we see small streamer ExoHydraX permanently banned for showing some cleavage, followed by the total lack of consequences (yet again) for Twitch's favorite Alinity, who repeatedly flashed her underwear on stream.
The banning of Dellor for breaking a keyboard, something he has repeatedly done many times before, is another example of Twitch enforcing rules streamers are struggling to understand or are unaware of.
November's Offenses
Streamer: Khanada Size of Channel: 74k+ Offense: Streaming with banned player Zayn, leaving him unmuted for half the stream. Consequence: 3 day ban.
Full Story: Fortnite Streamer Khanada Temporarily Banned From Twitch For Playing With Banned Player Zayn
Streamer: Viperous Size of Channel: 13k+ Offense: "Hateful Slurs" for saying the word "nerd." Consequence: 3 day ban.
Full Story: Streamer Banned On Twitch For Saying "Nerd"
Streamer: Clix Size of Channel: 526k+ Offense: Streaming with banned player Zayn, despite having him on mute and using a different nickname the entire stream. Consequence: 7 day ban, later reduced to 3 days.
Full Story: Clix Is The Latest Fortnite Streamer To Receive Ban For Playing With Zayn
Streamer: THump Size of Channel: 171k+ Offense: A subscriber of his spammed IRL channels he was watching. Consequence: 7 day ban.
Full Story: THump Banned From Twitch After His Sub Spams Dick Pics In Others' Chats
Streamer: PaymoneyWubby Size of Channel: 207k+ Offense: "Invasion of privacy" for streaming in a restaurant. Consequence: 14 day ban, later reduced to 5 before a glorious comeback.
Full Story: PaymoneyWubby Banned From Twitch For Streaming In Restaurant, Despite Permission
Streamer: Pokimane Size of Channel: 3.5M+ Offense: Googling "spunk" on stream, ending up displaying NSFW content. Consequence: None, although she did quickly end the stream and delete the VOD after realizing she'd been baited.
Full Story: Pokimane Risks Ban Googling Images For 'Spunk'
Streamer: Tarzaned_ Size of Channel: Unknown Offense: Toxic comments, made weeks before ban enforced. Consequence: 30 day ban.
Full Story: Streamer Tarzaned Cries After Twitch Rivals For Getting 30-Day Ban
Streamer: At-Tar-Ras Size of Channel: Unknown Offense: Reported by a "fan" using multiple accounts. Consequence: 14 day ban.
Full Story: Obsessed 'Fan' Gets Streamer Suspended After Making Fake Accounts To Report Them
As the above incidents show, things still aren't improving over at Twitch. Consequences still being inconsistent is highlighted by Khanada and Clix receiving different consequences for the same offense.
We've also seen favoritism being argued again as Pokimane got away with her NSFW Google; although she did quickly go offline and remove the offending material before resuming her stream shortly afterward.
Finally, we see the biggest mistake of the month as PaymoneyWubby is wrongly banned and then despite him explaining to his contact and providing evidence of his innocence immediately, he had to wait 5 days to get his channel reinstated. This angered him so much he posted a huge rant over on YouTube, which talked about the consequences of these bans being freely handed out by Twitch staff.
So, Are Things Better?
In a nutshell, no. Twitch is still not maintaining consistency, while also proving the bias it has been accused of remains intact. Bans are still unpredictable and erratic and streamers are still suffering.
As we move ever closer to the new year, Twitch needs to start keeping its promises and quickly or even more streamers will no doubt be making the jump to other platforms.