Pokimane hit with first-ever Twitch ban, here’s why

In a surprising turn of events, Imane “Pokimane” Anys has been banned from Twitch.

To date, Pokimane has been one of Twitch’s best-behaved streamers. While many prominent personalities have had some dust-ups with moderators, landed in offline drama, or even been hit with permanent bans, that hasn’t been the case for Pokimane.

Pokimane has been one of the least controversial big names on the platform, which makes her ban all the more surprising. This is Pokimane’s first Twitch ban ever.

The ban was delivered in January with Pokimane getting slapped with a DMCA ban from the platform. In a rare lapse in judgment, she decided to stream the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series to her audience. This resulted in a quick and predictable copyright claim from Nickelodeon parent company Viacom. Viacom is traditionally aggressive when it comes to protecting its intellectual properties, of which Avatar is one.

Pokimane made it through 11 episodes of the series, with the ban coming after The Great Divide, widely regarded as one of the worst episodes in the series as it features a feud between two tribes being unceremoniously resolved when main character Aang concocts an elaborate lie.

How long is Pokimane banned from Twitch?

After streaming several episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pokimane was banned from Twitch for 48 hours.

Despite the clear DMCA violation, Pokimane isn’t facing a particularly harsh punishment from Twitch. She’ll be taking a two-day break from the platform, which she confirmed in a post on Twitter.

While this was Pokimane’s first ban from Twitch, she wasn’t at all shaken by the turn of events. She joked about the matter on Twitter, quipping that “the fire nation attacked” after she was banned.

Though she’ll be offline for a few days, the good news for her fans is that she’ll be celebrating her return in grandiose fashion. She announced that she’ll return with a 12-hour comeback stream. This will also likely help her recoup some of the losses in revenue from missing out on two days of subscriptions and donations.