Twitch has a contentious history with bans. It used to ban streamers without telling them why, and–unlike on most platforms–its bans are usually a temporary slap on the wrist, ranging from just a few hours to 30 days. Since CEO Dan Clancy took over in 2023, Twitch has made some changes to its ban system, including finally informing streamers of the exact behavior that got them suspended.
But it still frequently faces backlash for how, when, and on whom it decides to bring down the banhammer.
The most recent creator to face a crackdown was Hasan Piker (aka HasanAbi), who was banned for 24 hours after saying that if people cared about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, “you would kill [U.S. Senator] Rick Scott.”
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He later said this was “hyperbolic language,” and that “there’s definitely some ownership I must take” of using it.
Also recently banned was Piker disliker Ethan Klein, whose “content nuke” targeting Piker got him a 30-day stop on streaming. However, the ban was revoked and lifted that same day, and the entire situation prompted criticism from users calling Twitch’s ban system a “joke.”
Clancy, as he’s done often since becoming CEO, addressed those users’ discontent in a stream. Speaking to Business Insider reporter Peter Kafka on his podcast Channels, Clancy said issuing bans on live content is more difficult than bans on VODs, because streamers can’t polish everything in post and make sure no Community Guidelines/terms of service are broken.
“On a VOD platform, like YouTube, you can edit something or take something down. It’s hard to sit there and talk for six hours straight and not step over the line,” he said. “It’s six to eight hours, [trying] to make sure you don’t step over the line, so it is the fact that sometimes people step over the line and you can’t just edit it out as you would on a VOD platform.”
This does explain why Twitch’s ban system is more lenient than other platforms’. On YouTube, for example, getting multiple Community Guidelines strikes can result in a channel being terminated permanently. But Twitch issues bans on the same streamers over and over, usually without ever doing anything to permanently affect their channels. It understands that streamers can make mistakes when they’re spending hours live on camera, and seems willing to forgive.
(It’s worth noting, though, that usually doesn’t mean always; Amouranth, who’s been banned many times for leaning toward risqué content in her streams, said earlier this month that Clancy himself confirmed she’d been shadowbanned, and Twitch was limiting the reach of her content. Clancy went on to lift that condition off her channel personally.)
Clancy added, “I don’t think it’s contentious, it’s just tricky for both them and us to make sure, look, we keep it within the guidelines. So, we have to see when somebody steps over the line and then do something to make sure they don’t step over the line consistently.”
He also explained that he’s not personally involved with issuing bans–and bans aren’t given by AI, either.
“We have a team that does that. It’s not automated,” he said. “I’ll be aware of their decisions for certain high-profile [streamers]. But it’s not my decision, because the whole point is to keep some degree of separation.”
Based on this conversation, it doesn’t look likely that anything major will change with Twitch’s ban system in the near future. It very well may continue issuing bans and then immediately reverting them when it realizes people aren’t happy. But that’s not exactly an unusual practice at Twitch.
