The streaming platformTwitchis well known for suddenly bringing down the banhammer on content creators, sometimes for confusing reasons. However, sometimes fans can find the lifting of these bans more interesting than the bans themselves. OneTwitchstreamer has just had a long-time suspension lifted, and the story surrounding it is fascinating.
Music artist Austin ‘Mr Wobbles’ O’Brien was banned from Twitch three years ago after an incident where he reportedly lost his temper at someone who had been allegedly harassing him. This is a pretty solid reason for Twitch to get involved, unlike a recent incident whenTwitch banned cartoon bird emotesfor being too sexy.
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Unfortunately, banned Twitch streamers are often kept from appearing on other streamers’ channels as well as their own. After Mr Wobbles was caught interacting with fellow streamers on the OfflineTV Rust server, one of them–William ‘WillNeff’ Neff–was banned. The reason given by the platform was “aiding account suspension evasion,” which both WillNeff and Mr Wobbles assumed referred to the interaction with Mr Wobbles, making the stream a disaster on par withSnoop Dogg’s failed gaming stream.
WillNeff clarified the situation to his fans on Twitter, while Mr Wobbles went to issue a tearful apology. The music artist specifically addressed WillNeff, another streamer he addressed as Cyr, and the people who made him feel welcome on the stream. He made it clear that it was never his intention for anyone to lose their channel and that he will no longer be in the OfflineTV Rust server. For his part, WillNeff stated that what happened was in no way Mr Wobbles' fault, and the two streamers worked together to try and finally get Mr Wobbles' Twitch ban undone. The appeal was successful, allowing Mr Wobbles to return to the platform the same way that fellowTwitch streamer Jon Zherkadid.
It appears that WillNeff will still need to serve the rest of his ban, which–fortunately for his fans–is short-term. However, the general consensus among fans of the two streamers is that they handled this situation very well, leading to an outpouring of support on Twitter. Several users have criticized Twitch’s approach to banning, calling it short-sighted or even absurd. Whether or not fans feel that Mr Wobbles' initial ban was justified, it appears that Twitch did reassess its reaction after a few years. With more streamers still being banned fromTwitch, including oneCall of Duty: Warzonestreamer banned for using aimbots, a story similar to this one could appear one day.
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