At gamescom 2022, there was a scuffle among German Twitch streamers such as Tanzverbot, Scurrows, and orangemorange. Afterward, there were calls on Twitter for Twitch to ban the streamers for their aggressive behavior at gamescom. However, one of the participants, Casino streamer Scurrows, is confident: Legally, that’s not possible. If Twitch really bans him, he will sue to return to the platform.
What happened at gamescom?
- Some German Twitch streamers were involved in a physical conflict at gamescom 2022 . At first, there were wild insults, then things turned physical. The conflict erupted between a group led by Casino streamers orangemorange and Scurrows on one side and Twitch streamer Tanzverbot on the other side.
- No one was injured during the incident, even though cups and arms were thrown. According to the organizer of the gamescom, all parties assured that they would not file a complaint. The gamescom stated: They respect that.
- On Friday, August 26, several videos of the incident circulated on Twitter, causing public outrage. Many people wrote that gamescom should be about games, not such behavior. There were also calls for Twitch to ban the involved streamers.
Twitch clause regulates “behavior outside of Twitch”
This was the demand after the incident: A widely noted tweet after the incident came from Twitch streamer Dracon. He referred to a clause in Twitch’s rules regarding “behavior outside of Twitch.” These are relatively new rules: They were updated in April 2021.
The rules state that crimes by Twitch users also pose a safety risk to the Twitch community, even if they are committed entirely outside of Twitch.
A clause that Dracon highlights refers to “actions that directly and clearly threaten the physical integrity of the Twitch community.”
A member of PietSmiet calls for a Twitch ban – receives much support
In a tweet, Twitter user “Don Jay” from the gaming group Pietsmiet called on August 26 for Twitch to ban the involved streamers like orangemorange or Tanzverbot (via twitter).
The tweet received 15,880 likes.
“Twitch is not the Internet police”
This is what one of the participants says about it: The Twitch streamer Theo “Scurrows” Bottländer has extensively commented on Twitter regarding the demand for him to be banned.
Scurrows says:
To be clear: Twitch is not the Internet police. They can’t ban you on Twitch for your behavior, for example, on YouTube. And certainly not for incidents that occurred offline.
Scurrows
Regarding the clause in the rules, he says: These rules would not withstand court scrutiny. Twitch could also write in the rules that someone would be sentenced to death. That would still not be effective.
Scurrows seems confident that there will be no consequences for him. If he is banned, he has already threatened to sue. When reminded that such a trial could take years, like with streamer Phantomlord, he referred to the possibility of filing an application for injunction to stream again immediately.
Scurrows sees himself as a victim, as he explains in a recent video on YouTube. He believes that the public sentiment against him is so negative only because he is criticized as a “Casino streamer.” The aggressor was Tanzverbot, who behaved “like a wild boar” (via youtube).
However, Scurrows’ tweets are currently no longer visible, his Twitter account is marked as “No longer exists.”
Streamer successfully sued back to Twitch after 3-year ban in 2021
Why is Scurrows so sure? Scurrows knows from personal experience what it’s like to sue back to Twitch. Because he was banned from Twitch for 3 years starting in 2018.
He went to court against the ban.
As reported by Streamrant, after losing at the district court, Scurrows reportedly managed to lift the ban and return to stream on Twitch with a lawsuit at the higher regional court (via streamrant).
Will there be consequences for the involved Twitch streamers? Probably not. There seem to be high barriers before Twitch intervenes and punishes behavior that did not directly occur on Twitch.
It is known that Twitch responds sensitively to public pressure, but in the past, it has always been about clips from incidents that occurred on Twitch, such as the famous “Uiiii” video from MontanaBlack.
It seems that no one should expect to be excluded from the next gamescom. The streamers were allowed back to the event after the incident. In a statement, gamescom said they had reminded them that gamescom is not a place for violence.
However, Scurrows may face other problems:
- The streamer earns his money on Twitch with casino streams.
- These streams are strongly criticized worldwide.
- According to Twitch is currently investigating whether they even want to have this content on Twitch.
At gamescom, it was really about games:
Twitch only bans in rare, very extreme cases outside the platform
Has Twitch ever punished someone for behavior outside of Twitch? There are few known cases where streamers were banned for behavior outside of Twitch. These are often very extreme examples.
The streamer Leafy was banned from Twitch in September 2020 after being involved in a dispute with YouTuber Ethan “h3h3” Klein. He had shown a video on Twitter in which Leafy had gone to a protest with a hidden weapon. This could have led to a ban on Twitch.
There is an incident from June 2019: The Twitch streamer “Methodjosh,” from the leading WoW guild Method, was permanently banned from Twitch. At that time, no one really knew why (via dotesports). Because no behavior was observed on Twitch that would have justified such a harsh penalty.
Later it turned out that the streamer was accused of raping a woman. The police found no results during their investigation, but the streamer was permanently banned from Twitch. The ban likely also included media reports that were published 4 months earlier and were not that serious (via kotaku).
Later, additional women accused the streamer, and there was an incident in June 2020, which led to a temporary dissolution of the guild Method.
Survey on a possible penalty
What do you think? We have created a survey on whether Twitch should punish the involved streamers. You have only one vote for an answer and can choose from 6 options:
A similar case for a ban for behavior outside of Twitch could be the permanent ban of DrDisrespect: To this day, the public does not know why DrDisrespect was permanently banned from Twitch, after he signed a lucrative exclusive contract a few months prior.
The ban cannot be explained by “behavior in stream.”
Some suspect that Twitch may have banned DrDisrespect due to a changed market situation or because he lied during negotiations with Twitch over an exclusive contract:
This is the best theory of why Dr Disrespect was banned from Twitch
