It seems every dayTwitchis adding more rules and restrictions on what streamers can and can’t say or do, but now it seems the streaming service may have gone too far. PopularRainbow Six SiegeandFortnitestreamer Viperous was banned for seven days for using a “hateful slur.” According to a tweet from Viperous, the “slur” in question was “nerd,” a word that she says she uses all the time on her channel.
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On November 8th, while Viperous was playing a shooter, she said “what is this nerd doing?” after being killed by someone in the corner. One of her Twitter followers captured the moment, mistakenly believing that she had said a racial slur. After playing the clip back in slow motion, however, it was clear all she had said was “nerd.” The damage had already been done, though, and Twitch apparently didn’t want to take any chances on something that might sound like a racial slur.
This isn’t the first timeTwitch has banned streamers for questionable reasons. Just last month popular streamer and formerOverwatchpro Dellor received a permanent ban due to “self-harm” from a repeated gag where he would break a keyboard over his head. Back in September, art streamer Qucqo was banned for cosplaying as Chun-Li, which Twitch chose to view as “sharing or engaging in sexually suggestive content or activities.”
Though it’s easy to criticize Twitch for these recent bans, it’s not entirely unwarranted for the company to be so overly cautious. There have been plenty of streamers who have done or said some controversial things on Twitch and other livestreaming services in the past, likeAlinity’s recent wardrobe malfunction. Another big one was PewDiePie’s “PUBGbridge” incident, in which the famous YouTuber very casually (and publicly) blurted out a racial slur. Clearly, Twitch is trying to avoid any such controversies from happening in the future, although that seems to have made the company somewhat “ban-happy.”
Either way, Twitch may need to rethink its streaming policies given that many big-name streamers have already left the platform and banning streamers for little to no reason isn’t exactly winning anyone over.
