The Real Reason TheGrefg Expected His Twitch Ban

With each passing year, it seems Twitch gets more strict with its terms of service. Streamers' content — including what they're allowed to react to on their channels — has become heavily scrutinized in all-new ways. The policies set forth by Twitch has been questioned by some of the most prominent personalities on the site, with popular streamers like Amouranth calling out Twitch for what have been deemed inconsistent rules regarding what earns a suspension. However, Twitch has recently made one thing very clear: Streamers are not allowed to feature banned creators on their feeds. Hikaru Nakamura learned that when he was suspended for showing footage of Dr Disrespect. And now, it seems Spanish streamer and content creator David "TheGrefg" Martinez has also learned this lesson the hard way. 

As one of the most prominent Spanish-speaking content creators out there, Martinez has amassed over 17 million subscribers on YouTube and 10 million followers on Twitch. Outside of Twitch, Martinez also owns the fledgling eSports organization Team Heretics, which has only grown in popularity. 

However, on March 22, Martinez revealed through Twitter that he had received a three-day suspension from Twitch for a previous TOS violation. According to Martinez himself, he should have seen the ban coming, as it involved him taking a risk with one of his guests on the offending stream.

On his March 10 stream, TheGrefg interviewed a member of his esports team, fellow streamer Brunenger, who had received a permanent Twitch ban back in May 2021 (per Game Rant). The point of this particular stream was to discuss Twitch's ban policy, but in order to possibly avoid Twitch from coming down on the stream, Brunenger was seen wearing an astronaut helmet throughout the broadcast. Unfortunately, this only prolonged the process. A little under two weeks later, TheGrefg announced he had received a temporary ban from the platform — and confirmed that it was due to his stream with Brunenger.

"I inform you that I have been banned from Twitch for 3 DAYS for the direct I did with Brunenger explaining his case and criticizing Twitch's ban policy," TheGrefg said in a tweet explaining the situation. He would, however, say that the ban wasn't a surprise due to hosting Brunenger on his stream. He added, "I knew I was taking a risk doing something like that and this is the punishment." Luckily for fans, TheGrefg said his followers could expect him back on Twitch on Friday.