Pokimane responds to calls for her to be banned on Twitch

Virginia Glaze

Imane “Pokimane” Anys is one of Twitch’s top broadcasters, known for her hilarious interactions with fans and her humorous reactions to viral clips on stream — but one of these reaction streams took an unexpected turn.

Anys was reacting to user-submitted content during a May 19 broadcast when one of the links she clicked directed her to a sensitive website, which she accidentally showed to her thousands of viewers.

Shocked, Pokimane screamed and quickly exited out of the window, later explaining that someone must have infiltrated the private Google Doc filled with a list of approved links for her to watch in front of fans.

Critics were quick to speak out on the situation and many called for Anys to be banned over an obvious accident that plenty of smaller streamers had been suspended for, with others citing apparent “double standards” from the site in regards to popular broadcasters.

“If Pokimane doesn’t get banned, then no one on Twitch should get banned for accidentally showing nudity,” popular YouTuber Scarce tweeted. “I see streamers getting banned weekly for this, though. Why is there such a blatant double standard?”

https://twitter.com/JohnScarce/status/1262971713010237440?s=20

Anys explained the incident in a stream the very next day, clarifying that she’d been contacted by Twitch over the matter, and was warned to be careful about clicking suspicious links and questionable content.

“But yeah, they definitely do give you a warning,” she stated. “They’re like, ‘You have to be really careful about that kind of stuff.’ I’ve definitely had issues like that in the past, too. It’s just that I’ve been streaming for so long that it’s not very frequent — or it’s not frequent enough to lead to a ban.”

Claiming that she would understand if she were to be banned, since she has “messed up in the past,” Anys went on to speak on Twitch’s supposed “double standards,” claiming that a popular male streamer had done the same thing recently and also hadn’t been banned over the accident.

“Just so you guys know, it’s not the vagina!” she joked. “Literally yesterday, me and Connor both accidentally leaked something.”

Despite the outrage over an obvious accident, Pokimane’s clarification shed light on a highly volatile situation that continues to see questioning from users across Twitch.