The Twitch streamer Mason “Symfuhny” Lanier said a racist word during a stream of Call of Duty: Warzone for which one would usually get banned from Twitch. But streamers like xQc and Myth defend him. Symfuhny himself says: He couldn’t have said the word because it’s not in his vocabulary.
This is Symfuhny: The 21-year-old Mason Lanier is one of the big winners on Twitch in recent years. Although he has been on the streaming platform since 2012 and became a professional in H1Z1 in 2016, he only really became famous in the last few years:
- In 2019, the American made a name for himself in Fortnite
- In 2020, he switched to “Call of Duty: Warzone” and fully embraced the hype
- Currently, Symfuhny has 3 million followers. This earns him the 38th spot on Twitch
- When he streams, an average of 14,120 people watch him
This is what he did: In a clip from CoD Warzone, you can clearly hear him using the racist N-word while talking to his friend Myth. However, it isn’t emotionally charged at all. He rambles, jumps from thought to thought, and somehow uses the word as an address for Ali “Myth” Kabbani, one of the biggest streamers on Twitch.
While Symfuhny didn’t seem to register it at all, many users immediately wrote in the chat: “N Bomb” – “What the fuck” or simply “????”
Clip receives 300,000 views, sparks discussion
These are the consequences: The clip in which Symfuhny says the word has now over 300,000 views. The clip was shared and discussed on Livestream Fails, a large subreddit (via reddit).
Because usually, the N-word results in an immediate Twitch ban:
- MontanaBlack was banned in 2019 for saying it in the background of a friend’s stream when he was very upset about FIFA.
- A young Fortnite player was suspended from his team for the word and sentenced to a corrective measure.
- Many Twitch streamers have already been banned for using the word. Everyone knows: You must never say that word.
However, nothing happened to Symfuhny.
On reddit, they compare the case to that of Pokimane. She is considered a favorite of Twitch and seems untouchable. Old clips are circulating in which she has also used the N-word.
“I don’t have that word in my vocabulary”
This is what he says: Symfuhny says many people believe he said it. But he did not. He does not have that word in his vocabulary. One could ask anyone.
He speaks quickly, stutters, something came out that sounded like he said it, but he didn’t. Symfuhny says: He also doesn’t know what else he can bring up in his defense. He didn’t say it, and he will never say it.
However, Symfuhny does not explain which word he actually meant to say. In comparable cases, streamers have assured that they were misunderstood due to their unclear speech and actually wanted to say something else:
- A LoL streamer said he actually said “Anivia” and Twitch misunderstood it
- A WoW streamer was banned for “Fuck it” as Twitch apparently understood it as “Faggot,” another word for which you get banned
- The Swede Forsen complained that he was banned once only because of his bad accent
A fan defending Symfuhny says: The streamer might have mixed up the words “Myth” and “I think uh” in his head so that something like “Myguhh” came out.
“That was just a bug”
This is what other streamers say: Myth, to whom the word was directed, says:
“Even though we heard it, he did not say it.”
That it was a bug, claims Myth. Symfuhny cannot speak properly and mumbled something.
Myth promises his fans: They can be sure that if Symfuhny ever slips the word, Myth will be the first to talk to him about it and have a serious discussion with him.
Colleague xQc says: He can relate to that. He experiences the same thing, where he has an idea in his head of what he wants to say, then another idea flares up and a word comes out that was somehow misdirected.
The political commentator HasanAbi says: “Based on my [limited] experiences with Symfuhny, he is a very nice guy. He does not seem to me like someone who would just drop the N-word.”
Another Twitch celebrity, Sodapoppin, says: “I really don’t believe he is racist. I have to say it like that.”
Many other big streamers vouch for Symfuhny’s good character. Jack “CouRage” Dunlop supports him: He lived with Symfuhny for a year and says that he doesn’t have that word in his vocabulary. He wouldn’t harm a fly.
Are there also people who criticize his behavior? Yes, there are. Many do not believe Symfuhny’s explanation.
While it’s acknowledged that Symfuhny said it ending with an “a” and not with a “hard R” (which is the clearly worse variant), many have no doubt that he said it and that he should admit it.
A user on Twitter writes: “Don’t piss in my pocket and tell me it’s raining.” Symfuhny clearly said it.
A Twitter user says: “That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard. A boy with blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin clearly says the N-word – in exactly the context that he intended to say it, and the excuse is: He mixed up words?”
This is the background: It seems that Twitch actually considers the context of the ban and does not view the matter in isolation. The word was apparently not meant to be hateful and intended to hurt no one.
In instances of hateful uses that resulted in bans, the respective word was almost always used in an emotionally charged context: as an insult or curse.
The difficulty is that Twitch has banned players in comparable cases even if the respective word was not used as a slur – for example, the CS:GO star s1mple, who was banned multiple times for a word he used as harmless teasing towards a friend, which Twitch deemed “hateful.”
Once again, it seems that Twitch’s “ban” or “non-ban” policy resembles a coin toss. Sometimes they are right, sometimes wrong.
It is noticeable that Twitch generally behaves more leniently with top streamers in the top 50 or 100, while the ban hammer hits smaller streamers hard:
