Twitch bans remain an inconsistent and unpredictable guessing game, lacking transparency for both streamers and their communities. I would like to ask Twitch: Why?

At TwitchCon earlier in 2024, the Amazon-owned platform stated its ambition to make moderation more transparent, with a number of changes coming in the new year.

These changes include providing the banned user with chat clips, if the violation took place in chat, or clips, if it was a streaming violation.

This is certainly a fantastic change. For too long, streamers were told they were breaking a rule and would be banned, but never told what they actually did to break the rule.

Yet one glaring problem remains, even once Twitch makes these changes at some point in 2025: the length of the ban. A generous view is that Twitch considers all possible contexts when determining whether a streamer will be banned from their channel for 24 hours, 30 days, or forever.

A less generous view would imagine darts being thrown at a dart board or a wheel of fortune deciding the length of a suspension. At this point, the latter solution almost seems like a distinct possibility.

Hateful behavior on Twitch

On October 16, after deafening calls for action, Twitch banned Asmongold – one of its best-known longtime streamers. During a broadcast a few days earlier, Asmongold had described the Palestinian population as belonging to an “inferior culture” and that he would shed no tears for them.

Of course, as always, the duration of the ban was not made public, but journalist Rod Breslau reported that it was 14 days.

For what? Why could Twitch have determined that a two-week suspension was most appropriate?

Presumably (and we can only presume), Asmongold’s actions violated Twitch’s hateful conduct rules in the Community Guidelines. It was long thought that any violation of these guidelines resulted in a 30-day suspension by default.

Twitch: asmongold

Asmongold is banned from Twitch for 14 days due to his comments regarding the Palestine conflict.

After all, that was Destiny and m0E’s punishment in 2019 for using a homophobic slur. This is also the punishment given to Adin Ross in 2022, again for breaking the hateful conduct rules. 30 days – simple, effective, a precedent.

So when NICKMERCS was banned in 2024 for using a transphobic slur, precedent would suggest that he too would receive a 30-day suspension. Instead, he was banned for 10 days. For what?

Then there’s the infamous JiDion ban. He was banned under the hate conduct guidelines in January 2022, not for using a slur, but for inciting a “hate raid” on Pokimane’s channel.

Initially, he was suspended for 14 days, then, for unknown reasons, he was “upgraded” to a permanent ban. It was finally lifted after 832 days.

Even for something as clear as hateful behavior, which covers the use of slurs or derogatory comments about ethnicity, religion or sexuality, there is no sense of precedent. This exposes Twitch to exactly the kind of criticism they inevitably receive whenever a big name is banned: fans will say they’re playing favorites or being harsh on so-called undesirables.

Asmongold has since criticized Twitch, saying: “I think Twitch is really bad and inconsistent with bans too. I’ve made tons of videos about this and I think it continues to be true every day.

But it’s not just hateful behavior that leads to accusations of favoritism: moderation of sexual content is even more confusing.

The VTuber conundrum

In September, Twitch updated its language regarding appropriate dress and coverage, to specifically warn VTubers not to cover their models’ “hips.”

This sparked a wave of anger within the VTubing community, who felt strongly unfairly targeted, compared to their non-VTuber counterparts, who stream IRL.

One blatant example provided showed an IRL streamer with a camera dedicated to his butt. They apparently escaped a ban for this, perhaps because an empty spa was visible in the background, and they were in the Pools, Spas & Beaches category.

However, the streamer in question has been banned a total of 11 times since 2020 – the longest of 9 days.

fallen shadow | Tic

Fallenshadow has been suspended from Twitch for 30 days.

On September 15, the ban of VTuber Fallshadow compounded claims that Twitch has a separate set of rules for this niche.

Fallenshadow received a 30-day suspension for “self-harm” – because she was intoxicated while streaming.

She asked, “Is drinking going against TOS now?” Or is it just against the second set of made up rules that my partner manager admitted moderation has for me (which I’m not allowed to see or hear about btw) because I’m a small woman with a high, soft voice using a VTuber a model that looks like me IRL?

Fallenshadow did not use racial slurs or violate any rules regarding sexual content. She had drunk “three glasses of cream liqueur” and was banned for 30 days.

Twitch is taking a major step forward in 2025 by increasing transparency about why streamers are banned. However, the next, equally important step is to create a transparent, precedent-based system for determining the length of bans.

Ultimately, Twitch is a private company that can ban anyone at any time for any reason they choose. Context is important and mitigating and aggravating factors must be taken into account. But designing and making public the system used to determine the length of a suspension would do everyone, including Twitch, a favor.