Popular streamer Mitch Jones responds to Twitch ban for reading chat while driving

Twitch streamer Mitch Jones has received a short suspension from the platform for looking at his phone while driving during a recent stream.

Mitch Jones is a popular member of the Twitch IRL [in real-life] streaming community and can regularly be found in the Just Chatting category for a few hours at a time.

However, fans of the streamer will have to find somewhere else to go for the next few days as Jones received a week-long ban after his June 12 stream, where he was out and about in his car with fellow streamer Miss Tricky.

Mitch Jones is a popular member of the Just Chatting category on Twitch.

The streamer notified fans for the reasoning behind his ban on June 21 tweeting: “As many of you can see I’ve been banned from Twitch for a week for looking at my phone while driving. I completely agree I’m putting myself and others in danger and I need to be more responsible. Thanks.”

In a follow-up post, the popular streamer issued a message to his fellow broadcasters about streaming while driving. He stated that while he may not have been holding his phone at all times while driving, he was distracted and for that, he deserved the suspension.

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He continued on: “Even if you’re not looking at the chat or whatever, I feel like we all get carried away with text to speech and streaming in general – we’re trying to entertain the viewers. That creates a very distracting environment for a driver. I just wanted to tell other broadcasters to be careful.”

As a part of the nearly five-hour-long stream, the streamer chatted with his viewers between drives but was seen holding his phone at one point without having any hands on the steering wheel as Miss Tricky worked the camera for him.

While Mitch didn’t confirm that this exact moment was the part of his stream that landed him in trouble, users on social media quickly pointed to this specific incident.

Just hours before the ban was issued, Redditor TheMaverick13589 commented: “I’d guess [he was banned] because he was driving while reading chat on the phone without a hand on the steering wheel.”

While some smaller streamers do regularly stream while driving, Mitch’s ban may just be a warning to everybody about following the rules of the road instead of worrying about content.