Twitch has banned German streamer “MariaCataleya”. The reason for this is alleged racist symbols in her stream. The ban was triggered by a light strip. Now Twitch quickly backtracked.
This is what happened: The streamer “MariaCataleya” has over 63,000 followers on Twitch and shows mixed content there. She was banned by Twitch on September 21.
In her Instagram story, she mentioned that the reason for the ban from Twitch was the spread of “malicious symbols.” She clarified that someone mistook her Nanoleafs, i.e., her colorful decorative light in the background, for swastikas.
Decorative light is said to show swastikas – Twitch responds with a ban
These are the Nanoleafs in question: On her Twitch channel, there are several clips that still show the lights in the background:
The lights in question are the ones that keep changing color. If you look closely, you can discern the shape of a swastika there.
Twitch had enough and pulled out the banhammer. MariaCataleya was permanently banned from Twitch – she could never return to the platform.
Is she still banned? No, the streamer has appealed the ban and was successful. In the meantime, she is no longer banned and has already streamed on Twitch again.
However, in her last Twitch stream, the Nanoleafs were not visible anymore.
This is the situation with Twitch and the bans: Time and again, Twitch is criticized for not being able to enforce bans properly. Either streamers are not banned who many viewers believe deserve it, or there are bans like this one, which were not really well-founded.
There have already been significant discussions about nudity on Twitch. The streaming platform has already explained in detail what is allowed on Twitch and what is not. However, the guidelines on this issue seem not to be very precise.
This ban was even so controversial because other streamers use the same Nanoleafs without receiving any punishment from Twitch. There are numerous examples of this on Twitter.
Here is another ban: Another Twitch ban that caused a lot of attention is that of MontanaBlack. He was banned for 33 days on Twitch for chasing women during a livestream and commenting on their appearance while making grunting noises.
Here, too, there was criticism of Twitch. The ban only occurred after loud criticism from viewers and many people believe that the streamer should have been banned for longer.
