mason banned for 5th time from Twitch, unbanned 4 hours later

Update- August 3, 9:50 p.m. ET

Mason’s ban from Twitch was overturned just a few hours after being put in place.

The unban was quickly announces by Streamer Bans on Twitter, then corroborated by mason:

and I am unbanned. Will stream tomorrow probably. Let's all be the best we can be in-game and out of game 🙂

— mason (@masondota) August 3, 2021

–End of update–

One of Dota 2’s biggest streamers has been banned. Again.

Mason “mason” Venne is being forced into an extended break from Twitch. The streamer stated that he has been dealt a 30-day ban from the platform and will be out of commission during that time. He has appealed the decision, which may or may not result in a reduction in the length of the ban.

While reasons for Twitch bans are often vague, mason states his latest ban stems from a recurring practice on his stream to derisively spit when a fan sends greetings from a specific country. mason was seemingly banned for doing this after someone said “greetings from Palestine.” Palestine has faced regular attacks from the Israeli military in 2021, which have been labeled by many journalists and experts on the region as politically motivated.

mason is hoping that his practice of doing this regularly, regardless of the country, will help his case in the appeal as he makes the case that it’s a simply a running gag. Regardless, this is just the latest of many bans being slapped on mason over the last few years.

Why was mason banned from Twitch?

This latest Twitch ban is mason’s fifth throughout his time on the platform, with most being due to bigoted language either by himself or others. The first is believed to have come from lax moderation in his chat despite pervasive racist and sexist language.

His third ban came in January when he used an ableist slur during a New Year’s Eve stream. In April, he claims to have accidentally used a homophobic slur when he was asked about a build in Dota 2, where stated he isn’t a “fan” of Aghanim’s Scepter. These previous bans have lasted between three and seven days. If mason’s latest ban does run the full 30 days, it will easily be the longest of his streaming career.

This latest ban is seemingly related to mason jokingly spitting when people relate to him their countries of origin. It seems that someone did not take the joke lightly.