DansGaming emote removal highlights Twitch's inconsistent rules

Olivia Richman Published 11/11/2019

Popular broadcaster DansGaming has been a Twitch streamer for 10 years. Over that time, he’s gained about 800,000 followers who enjoy watching him play a variety of games. Most recently, DansGaming has been playing Death Stranding. But he had to take a short break from streaming when one of his custom emotes was removed from his channel.

The emote, which showed a cartoon blob of a human sitting on a toilet, was removed for “sexual content,” which frustrated DansGaming immediately upon his learning of the decision.

“I had to stop streaming because I’m so pissed. My ability to upload emotes instantly was removed as well. If I had thought anything about this was wrong I wouldn’t have uploaded it. The inconsistency of the moderation team from butt emotes to people tossing animals is getting sad,” DansGaming said on Twitter.

The situation quickly made its way to Reddit, where the streaming community immediately weighed in on the situation.

“Dan lost the ability to upload fast emotes for three months. This will cost him money as he can’t do themed emotes quickly which is a big appeal of his channel. Meanwhile, a certain someone flashed her vag for the world to see, three day ban, and no financial punishment,” one Redditor ranted.

They continued, “How the fuck is this fair to Dan? This irritates me not because of the punishment which is undeserved (danPotty is not a fucking sexual emote, in any way), but Dan is a genuinely good guy and has never caused problems in a DECADE on the platform. This is yet another embarrassment for the clueless moderation team.”

While many people felt bad for DansGaming’s situation, most people’s attention rapidly turned to Twitch and the platform’s inconsistent and sometimes unfair punishments. This has been a topic of discussion within the Twitch community for some time now, and instances like this only fuel the fire.

“You go potty and that’s ok! People will try to make you feel that this act is shameful and something that you should hide but it’s nothing more than a biological necessity that all living creatures do in some form. Never be ashamed that you potty, everybody potties,” DansGaming tweeted.

Twitch’s inconsistent rules anger community

Although it seems DansGaming has slowly calmed down and found humor in the dilemma, his argument about Twitch’s unfair punishments has remained a hot topic. He had brought up “people tossing animals” on Twitter. This was in reference to Twitch streamer Alinity throwing her cat during one of her live broadcasts. She also had a clip of herself spitting Vodka into her cat’s mouth.

Streamer Ian Miles Cheong took to Twitter to demand Twitch take action when nothing was immediately done. When the platform remained silent, PETA also stepped in.

“Take a stand for cats & please remove Alinity from Twitch immediately. She is using the platform to post animal abuse, which sends a dangerous message to anyone watching her videos. Cats are not props to abuse for more views,” PETA stated.

As Twitch remained silent, others within the streaming community uncovered other questionable instances, involving the time Alinity lightly kicked her dog. While many didn’t find it as offensive as throwing her cat, the moment still didn’t sit well given the other instances.

Alinity offered an apology.

“Hey everyone, I understand the concern and I am sorry for my lapses in judgement. I shouldnt have gotten frustrated with Milo, but I dropped him on the floor behind my chair. I’m not that strong. The Vodka thing was well over a year ago but it was also a stupid thing to do,” she tweeted.

Twitch’s own director of creator development said he wanted her banned for at least 30 days over the animal abuse. But even after the SPCA spoke up and stated they were going to visit Alinity to investigate the situation, Twitch never banned or suspended Alinity’s Twitch account. This only served to further enrage many people.

Some female streamers see lighter punishments

The situation that the Reddit user brought up was Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa’s three-day ban for accidentally exposing her genitals on stream. Many in the gaming and streaming world felt that the NSFW slip was intentional, but accident or not, many felt three days was way too small a punishment for such a big offense against Twitch’s own community guidelines.

Another popular Twitch partner, Nichole “Badbuny” was suspended earlier this year for exposing her “crotch area” on stream. For this, Twitch gave her a short three-day suspension as well.

Meanwhile, Twitch has began suspending artists for much longer when they draw suggestive pin-ups and anime-style girls. One of the banned artists, Sareui, noted that IRL streamers were “squatting in front of the camera” to show off their butts, which didn’t lead to any type of suspension.

Twitch suspensions for racist language remain inconsistent

IRL streamer MitchJones has a good amount of followers. When he returned from his 30-day ban for showing a private message with a racial slur, MitchJones had around 450,000 Twitch followers. While he was glad to finally be back, he quickly noticed that he was no longer a Twitch partner.

This may seem like a fair punishment for using racist language, but Badbunny received no ban or suspension at all after she was exposed using the word “faggot” over 375 times, along with other racist phrases and jokes, on her own private Discord messages.

Then there’s the time Turner “Tfue” Tenney used racist language on a stream and received no punishment. This decision was even more infuriating to the streaming community when it was revealed that Tfue was previously banned for using racist language, meaning that Twitch didn’t want to give him a “third strike,” which would spell a permanent ban for the Fortnite superstar.

MitchJones may have a lot of followers. But Tfue has way more, boasting 7 million, and is one of the most subscribed to streamers on Twitch.

This makes it seem like Twitch is favoring larger streamers, which makes their punishments very inconsistent and therefore very frustrating to many in the streaming community. It’s possible that these instances of unfairness are partially why so many big-name streamers have been leaving Twitch for other streaming platforms like YouTube and Mixer.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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