Twitch has recently banned several major streamers for the use of a racial slur during their broadcasts, including Vaush, Fawn, and Hasan Piker. Fawn has said she was falsely reported to Twitch.
Vaush & Fawn Were Both Banned on Twitch
Vaush, who had 82,000 followers on Twitch, and Fawn, who had 32,000 followers, were both allegedly banned on Twitch on December 14 for using the word “cracker” during a stream, Dexerto reported. Fawn said on Twitter that she was falsely reported.
Vaush tweeted that he was banned for using a racial slur. He tweeted the update shortly after writing on Twitter, “The left needs a big streamer who isn’t known for using racial slurs, and I’m stepping up to the plate.”
Vaush tweeted that it was a “massacre” after sharing a screenshot of Twitch’s reason for his ban.
The screenshot said he was issued a “Community Guidelines strike on your account.” The message noted: “Due to the severe nature of this violation, or the fact that you’ve incurred multiple violations, your access to Twitch services is indefinitely restricted.”
The screenshot that Vaush shared went on to say that the reason was due to “hateful slurs or symbols” used “without context or in a harmful manner.”
Fawn tweeted that she believed she was banned “for the same thing.”
Fawn said on Twitter that her ban was for seven days and that “someone on reddit admitted to falsely reporting me.”
Fawn also commented that the ban happened after she had to miss her grandmother’s funeral after being so sick that she was in the emergency room.
Twitch’s community guidelines on slurs note limited exceptions: “We allow certain words or terms, which might otherwise violate our policy, to be used in an empowering way or as terms of endearment when such intent is clear.”
Dexerto reported that Twitch noted in 2020: “regardless of spelling or pronunciation, slurs used for the purpose of hate or harassment are not allowed.”
Twitch does not note officially if “cracker” is considered a slur according to its TOS, Dexerto reported.
Vaush has tweeted that he believes he was banned for saying “cracker.”
As of the time of this article’s publication, Vaush’s @VashVidya Twitch account was still unavailable on Twitch.
Twitch
Fawn’s Twitch channel brought back the same error message.
Hasan Piker Was Also Banned from Twitch
The news of Fawn and Vaush’s bans came after news of Hasan Piker’s Twitch ban was widely reported.
Piker had more than 1.6 million Twitch followers when he was banned, NBC News reported. He said he was banned for saying the word “cracker” on a live stream, but the platform didn’t immediately tell him exactly why he was banned.
Piker said on a YouTube video: “They don’t want to come out and say, ‘Anti-white racism is unacceptable on this platform, and that’s why we are banning the usage of the term cracker…'”
Piker said the word when he was signing off of his Twitch stream and talking about how two of his moderators were banned for using the word. He said his moderators were people of color who have been historically oppressed, and that he wanted his followers to “stop crying about this,” NBC News reported.
Piker said a group on Reddit had made the original complaint against his Twitch channel.
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