The Korean streamer Velvet_7 was permanently banned from Twitch in June 2020. It was said that she shared or engaged in sexually suggestive content. After 18 months, her ban was suddenly lifted. Streamer xQc believes: The new “unban” wave is due to the competition Twitch now faces from YouTube.
Why was the streamer banned?
- Velvet was banned for too revealing outfits. According to Twitch rules, it is prohibited to leave certain body regions uncovered or to emphasize them in a sexually suggestive manner.
- The streamer Velvet had several clashes with Twitch’s rules until she faced a permanent ban in June 2020. From her point of view, she was banned “unjustly.” Although she wore revealing outfits, she protected herself against “accidents” by wearing two bras and additional protective clothing, as she claimed (via twitter).
- Supporters of Velvet said: She is being punished for her body shape. Just because she is curvy, she receives bans. Other streamers, like Alinity, get away with the same behavior.
This is now the surprising twist: Fans of Velvet have been demanding for a year and a half that Twitch lets her back on the platform. Exactly that has now happened.
After 18 months, Twitch has suddenly unbanned the streamer.
She can hardly believe her luck and announces an immediate return.
In a podcast, we discuss the big Twitch leak on MeinMMO:
xQc believes: Twitch reacts to the migration to YouTube
This is the discussion: The biggest streamer on Twitch, xQc, commented that in recent weeks, some streamers who had been long banned were allowed back on Twitch. Besides Velvet, streamer Axiun also returned: He was banned in 2019 after sharing a pass for Twitchcon with others.
xQc says that the unbanning seems like a reaction to YouTube’s behavior:
“Something is going on. I feel like YouTube is making a push right now and Twitch is being stubborn. YouTube is acquiring more and more streamers and bringing them to their platform, and it seems like Twitch is responding by unbanning streamers they had banned before.”
xQc
xQc says: For a while, no one was unbanned, but in the last few months, six or seven have been. That’s crazy.
This is behind it: Some big names have actually switched from Twitch to YouTube, such as Valkyrae, CouRage, or most recently TimTheTatman.
The ban policy of Twitch has always seemed opaque. It seems that Twitch can actually arbitrarily decide which ban is truly permanent and which is suddenly lifted. xQc’s idea that Twitch “unbans” for strategic reasons seems quite plausible.
It is also noticeable that a “Twitch ban” no longer necessarily has to mean the end of a streamer’s career. Streamer Indiefoxx, who was banned for similar reasons as Velvet, simply switched channels after her Twitch ban. She went to YouTube:
Streamer gets banned from Twitch 6 times this year, simply switches to YouTube
