s1mple banned from Twitch for homophobic language, again

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has been banned from Twitch again.

The Natus Vincere star is being forced to take a break from streaming on Twitch due to his use of homophobic slurs. It is unknown how long the ban is for, but his previous ban for the same infraction was for one week.

As is protocol on Twitch, s1mple’s channel has been removed, which makes it impossible to clip the moment that led to his ban. s1mple put forward a statement seemingly confirming this while also bashing Twitch for the punishment.

“Another ban, stupid twitch doesn’t understand the different meanings of the same word in different contexts I’m tired of streaming on a terrible platform, always choosing the right words,” s1mple said on Twitter. “If you give ban for nothing, then the rules should be the same for other streamers as well.”

He went on to note that he attempted to relinquish his partner status on Twitch, but was unable to do so due to his ban from the platform.

Twitch punishments are uneven, but s1mple not just a victim

s1mple is certainly correct in criticizing Twitch for being uneven in terms of its distribution of punishment. The platform has been repeatedly and frequently criticized for its unclear rules and apparent preferential treatment of popular personalities.

The most infamous example of this include Natalia “Alinity” Mogollon hurling her cat backwards over her head and receiving no punishment and Fortnite pro Turner “Tfue” Tenney receiving no punishment for using a racial epithet during a recent stream. Meanwhile, other streamers have been banned for offenses as innocuous as saying the word “nerd” during streams.

While Twitch would be well served in fixing these issues, s1mple’s ban doesn’t fall into an ambiguous category. s1mple’s punishment stems from his use of a Russian word that is akin to a common homophobic slur in English. He was banned for the same thing in August after saying the word in jest towards teammate Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov during a game of Counter-Strike, and stated that Twitch was a “joke” for punishing him.

Though fans called for him to move to rival streaming service Mixer after Twitch announced his latest ban, s1mple will be hard-pressed to find any kind of social media platform that will tolerate the use of homophobic slurs, no matter the context.