In recent months, there has been trouble between the YouTuber LeafyIsHere and the Twitch streamer Pokimane. Leafy accused the streamer of exploiting viewers financially because they were in love with her. Now Leafy has been banned on Twitch and YouTube: His provocative style apparently led to his downfall.
What was the conflict about? The 24-year-old Imane “Pokimane” Anys is the largest streamer in the world and the only woman who has reached the top ranks on the streaming platform Twitch.
Recently, however, other male content creators have taken issue with her:
- In May, a YouTuber released a video stating that fans would go into debt because they were infatuated with Pokimane and followed her. Pokimane was exploiting these desperate men. He referred to their fans as “simps,” who were enchanted by her
- Pokimane then made derogatory comments about the sponsor of the video during a Twitch stream. This is actually a taboo.
- This provoked the YouTuber “LeafyIsHere” to release a nasty video about Pokimane and attack her directly. He also started a hashtag campaign claiming that Pokimane was deceiving everyone and actually had a boyfriend whom she was hiding to appear more accessible to her fans than she really is.
- Pokimane then took a break from Twitch – although officially not because of these attacks, there is a strong suspicion that the break was related to the harassment.
Banned first on YouTube – then on Twitch
This is the ban now: The YouTuber LeafyIsHere was banned from YouTube on August 24. He then switched to Twitch. But even there, his channel has now been banned.
According to an insider, the ban is supposed to be permanent. In a statement, Twitch says:
The safety of the community is our top priority. Twitch reserves the right to suspend any account that violates the rules or behaves in a manner that we consider inappropriate, hurtful, or “dangerous to the community.”
Statement from Twitch
Alongside Pokimane, Leafy was involved in a dispute with the YouTuber Ethan “h3h3” Klein. He shared a video on Twitter: In the clip, Leafy said he went to a protest with a concealed weapon looking for someone to shoot.
Later, Leafy explained: He was just making a joke.
This video reached 2.2 million views on Twitter.
The video was widely discussed. Some openly questioned whether Twitch really wants someone like that on their platform.
Apparently, the answer was: No.
After the Twitch ban Leafy complained on Twitter about Amazon boss Jeff Bezos: Just when he started to have fun, here comes the ban.
He now wants to appeal against the ban. It would be his first offense.
Twitch and YouTube clean up in recent months
This is what’s behind it: After the recent developments in the USA regarding “Black Lives Matter,” some platforms have decided to take a stand and ban controversial channels that had been tolerated for years. Twitch, for example, banned the channel of US President Donald Trump to make a statement.
For a few weeks now, there has been a stricter oversight over certain things that were previously overlooked because they polarized and generated attention.
Leafy is considered a streamer whose content consists of ranting about other content creators and intentionally provoking them. Apparently, he has crossed the line here.
It is not clear exactly what he was banned for, but he seems to be a complete package that neither YouTube nor Twitch want anything to do with, even if he is successful with it.
Pokimane is the only woman at the top of Twitch. This makes her an exotic figure who comes under criticism from people who say: She is exploiting her feminine charms to succeed.
The criticism is personal and harsh:
The biggest streamer on Twitch is accused of exploiting lonely men for money
