Amazon-owned Twitch has issued a 30-day suspension to popular streamer Anomaly for mistakenly showing an Adolf Hitler Minecraft skin on-screen for less than two seconds during one of his streams. The ban has reignited the conversation around Twitch’s inconsistent standards when enforcing its rules.
The incident that led to the ban happened seven days ago when Anomaly was streaming Minecraft on Twitch. During the stream, he went to check his inventory and realized that his Minecraft character was wearing a skin that looks like Hitler. The skin was displayed on screen for less than two seconds before Anomaly swiftly acknowledged the mistake and changed his character’s skin.
Anomaly says he had the skin because he was planning to make a Hitler themed joke in another video.
Despite rectifying the mistake quickly and explaining that the skin was intended to be used as part of a joke, Twitch didn’t see the funny side and gave Anomaly a 30-day ban. Anomaly has appealed the decision and said that he believes the length of the suspension is excessive.
https://twitter.com/anomalyxd/status/1155835288251502593
https://twitter.com/anomalyxd/status/1155873913974509569
As it stands, Anomaly won’t be able to stream on Twitch until August 28. However, if his appeal is successful, the length of his ban could be reduced or even rescinded completely.
Twitch’s decision to ban Anomaly for 30 days has been criticized by many in the community with esports reporter Richard Lewis describing it as “stupid” and other people wondering why Alinity and other female streamers seem to get favorable treatment when they break the rules.
It’s the latest in a long line of controversial bans on the platform which have caused growing frustrations around the way Twitch often applies its rules in an inconsistent manner. Some of these bans include Twitch streamer TF Blade being wrongly suspended after being accused of using the “N-word” and a Twitch user reportedly being suspended for “hate speech” for having “Trump” in his username.
