Dozens of partners are currently getting banned on Twitch. New reports of streamer bans are coming in by the second. MeinMMO is looking into what is currently happening at Twitch.
What’s happening right now?
- The Streamer Bans website reports on bans on Twitch.
- On the evening of March 10th around 6:20 PM German time, dozens of reports suddenly appeared at once. Almost all of the bans involve partners.
- Currently, according to statistics, there are reportedly 219 bans. Our check found that these were always streamers from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
Where does this wave of bans come from? There is currently no statement from Twitch or the streamers themselves regarding the ban wave. However, streamer and Twitch expert Zach Bussey mentions that this could relate to tax avoidance (via Twitter).
As TheGamer reported earlier, there were already complaints in February from streamers in the Middle East about missing payments. According to Bussey, many streamers have been using a service to circumvent 30% taxes, as their countries do not have a tax treaty with the USA.
Whether the bans are actually related to the missing payments is still only speculation. Twitch had previously restricted payments to Russian streamers. We also do not know how long the bans will actually last. Bussey suspects “temporary bans,” not permanent bans.
Bans on Twitch – How did this happen?
This current wave of bans is one of the largest on Twitch. When bans occur, it usually affects individual streamers and often for more or less known reasons. Twitch does not comment on the bans, but in most cases, the streamers themselves know what is going on.
Streamer STPeach was banned for moving a box. She was actually in the middle of a fundraising stream, collecting $10,000 for children and families in need.
German Twitch streamer Jens “Knossi” Knossala has also made the ban list multiple times. He has already been banned from the platform 5 times, but returned each time.
Bans on Twitch are always a hot topic. Many streamers have a large community that naturally wants to know what happened. There is often an outcry to “free” their favorite streamer.
However, the rules surrounding hot-tub streams and nudity are often a point of contention among viewers and streamers alike. Here, Twitch seems to often enforce the rules unevenly:
