Twitch Says They'll Start Banning Streamers Who Sexually Harass People

You’ve probably realized by now that there’s something of a second wave of #MeToo hitting the gaming culture right now, which is definitely something that we will address at length soon enough (spoiler alert I guess), but in the meantime the industry is currently reacting to this avalanche of accusations of sexual assault, including the one and only Twitch.

Now Twitch has, historically, not been a reliable upholder of their own standards and principles, particularly when it comes to their most popular streamers. For example, Dr. Disrespect, who broke the goddamn law by streaming people in the bathroom, only got a two-week ban from the platform and came back better than ever. Similarly, “MrDeadMoth” was only given a two week ban after he was allegedly caught beating his pregnant wife on a Fortnite stream, although that was eventually turned permanent because holy crap guys.

Anyway, apparently as a response to the accusations against two more big-name Twitch streamers, Cassell and “SayNoToRage”, Twitch has released a blog post stating that they’re going to start really banning streamers who sexually harass people. Really. They mean it.

Those who have come forward have shown incredible strength, vulnerability, and bravery. We acknowledge that we can’t singlehandedly tackle pervasive issues across the gaming and broader internet communities, but we take our responsibility as a service for our community seriously. We will continue to assess accusations against people affiliated with Twitch and explore ways Twitch can collaborate with other industry leaders on this important issue.

I, for one, am not holding my breath, because Twitch does indeed have that history of refusing to actually bite down on the major streamers who bring in in the phat stacks, but if they could just ban Cassell, like, for real, then I don’t really care if everyone else gets a free pass.

Seriously, screw that guy.