Why These Twitch Bans Are Causing An Absolute Uproar

Last year, a young streamer on Twitch named AverageHarry decided to apply to be a Twitch partner. After all, he'd just gone viral with a stream of him being harassed and discouraged by people in a hotel lobby, and he wanted to capitalize on all those new subscribers. Unfortunately, his application got him banned from Twitch entirely.

AverageHarry is just the latest in a large group of streamers who Twitch banned for streaming while underage. Even though AverageHarry now meets Twitch's age requirements, he began streaming before he turned 13. Since then, fellow streamers have come to his defense. 

Froste voiced support for AverageHarry, tweeting, "Harry is 15 and has raised more money for charity through charity streams than 99% of other streamers and Twitch bans him when he's experiencing massive growth to his channel because he made his account 2 months before he turned 13. Fix this, Twitch." Froste's tweet indicates that Twitch might be showing preferential treatment to some streamers, while punishing others who have violated the same rules.

In addition to AverageHarry, Fluctra and MaxTLL have also been banned by Twitch for creating accounts while underage. Fluctra told Kotaku, "Starting over has been super hard for me; I had just gotten partner and had hit so many milestones on my old channel. I didn't even know how to market off of my ban, so my new channel kind [of] isn't doing as well as you'd assume." Both Fluctra and MaxTll had recently seen growth in viewership and had applied to be partners with Twitch, which would allow their channels to grow more. Fluctra has been on the radar of major content creators like Pokimane, who donated to Fluctra's channel in a heartwarming video from last year.

Twitch's rules do specify that children cannot make Twitch accounts or stream on the site, however that hasn't stopped young hopefuls from creating accounts in the past. Streamer OnScreen tweeted a few familiar names that also started their channels before the age of 13, including TommyInnit, Bugha, Benjyfishy, Mongraal, and Fresh. However, since these streamers have massive fanbases numbering in the millions, OnScreen speculates that it's unlikely Twitch will enforce the same rule on them. Money is a motivating factor for any company.

The potential hypocrisy has been a hot topic on the internet for the past few days, and some Reddit users have even done their own sleuthing into the matter, pointing out famous streamers who should be banned according to Twitch's rules. One commenter, VoltsIsHere, observes that Twitch can't consistently ban people because "there's too many people that created their accounts before the age of 13. Probably most of the Fortnite pro streamers, which would kill Fortnite as a category on Twitch if they got banned." 

Though Twitch has told these young streamers that they can make a new account, starting over is hard, and AverageHarry, Fluctra, and MaxTLL have all understandably reported a drop in numbers since changing over to a new account. Twitch has yet to make a public statement about these recent bans.