Why Twitter's In An Uproar Over This Twitch Ban

If you're a popular streamer on Twitch and violate its terms of service, the company will ban your channel no matter how big you are. Unless you're an even bigger channel, that is — they're seemingly exempt from the rules. This double standard has Twitter up in arms in the defense of every average Tom, Dick, and Harry. Especially AverageHarry.

Recently, Twitch streamer AverageHarry was hit with a one-two gut punch. First, he applied for Twitch's Partner Program, waited 72 days for a response, and was denied on the grounds that his real age didn't line up with his account's listed age. AverageHarry was told that if he ever wanted to become a Twitch Partner, he would have to either contact Twitch support or make a new account. But then the decision was made for him when he was perma-banned, which cost him around 90,000 followers. Why was he banned? Because he made his account when he was 12, which is against the terms of service. If he had waited two months to sign up, he would be in the clear, but he didn't. And now, Twitch took away all of his hard work. Twitter users aren't having it.

While AverageHarry has taken the event in stride and just created a new account, his followers were quick to voice their support for the teenage streamer. More importantly, some were even quicker to jump on Twitch for blatant hypocrisy. One commenter, for example, listed popular Twitch streamers such as Bugha, Benjyfishy, Mongraal, and TommyInnit, who created their accounts when they were well below the terms of service's minimum age of 13. The only difference between them and AverageHarry is the numbers they pull in. While AverageHarry hadn't cracked 100,000 followers at the time of his banning, the listed streamers had attracted anywhere between 2.8 million and 3.9 million followers.

Many Twittergoers have latched onto this post as demonstrable proof of Twitch's double standard. AverageHarry didn't have too many followers, so Twitch could ban him well after the fact and not feel anything, but Benjyfishy and TommyInnit? According to some commenters, these streamers make so much money because of their followers that it is in Twitch's best interests to keep them around in violation of its own terms of service. If Twitch actually followed its own rules, many followers believe the company would shoot itself in the foot finance-wise.

So what is Twitch to do? Does it continue to let some streamers break the rules just because they rake in the dough, or will it rewrite the terms of service and possibly issue an apology to AverageHarry? No matter what, this double standard problem probably won't go away anytime soon.