The Bizarre Reason GeorgeNotFound Keeps Getting Banned

It's been a wild couple of days for Minecraft streamer GeorgeNotFound, who received multiple bans from Twitch for apparently harassing his own account through his alternate account's username.

If the Twitch saga of GeorgeNotFound, real name George Davidson, sounds confusing, that's because it is. Everything started last Saturday, March 13, when Davidson's alternate account, ThisIsNotGeorgeNotFound, received an indefinite suspension for using an inappropriate username, according to an email the streamer shared on Twitter.

While Twitch only sent the warning to Davidson's alternate account, an indefinite ban places all other accounts linked to a user in jeopardy because of Twitch's suspension evasion rules. Those rules state, "Any attempt to circumvent an account suspension or chat ban by using other accounts, identities, or by appearing on another user's account will also result in an additional enforcement against your accounts, up to an indefinite suspension."

The next day, March 14, Davidson reportedly received a second email with a new notice of an indefinite suspension. However, this was not a ban against his potentially still active primary account, GeorgeNotFound, but a second ban against the alternate account, ThisIsNotGeorgeNotFound. It is unclear whether Davidson's alternate account was reinstated during the hours between his first and second ban or if a Twitch account can receive multiple indefinite suspensions.

The reason behind the second ban was harassment via username accompanied by a list of possible instances of violation. The first two items on that list included Twitch usernames which negatively reference other Twitch users, which may be where the confusion originated. If a Twitch moderator saw Davidson's alternate account and didn't realize it was also run by Davidson, they could have interpreted it as an insult.

The entire situation seems to be an instance of internal confusion at Twitch regarding its own policies, which, to its credit, are in place to combat toxic behavior. As noted by Kotaku, which reached out to both Twitch and Davidson for comments, "Davidson's alternate account has over 300,000 followers—a suspiciously large number for a supposed fake." While Davidson's primary account has almost ten times that, with 2.9 million followers, it would likely be difficult for a troll to amass 300,000 followers solely to harass the GeorgeNotFound Twitch stream. Either way, Davidson's accounts both seem to be in good standing now, as the streamer sent out another tweet announcing he was no longer banned.

This is not the first time that one of Davidson's social media accounts was mysteriously suspended. In late February 2021, Davidson announced via tweet that TikTok had banned his account. However, that ban was also quickly reversed after #freegeorge began making the rounds on Twitter.