IRL streaming bounty hunter confirms why he was permanently banned

UPDATE: StephenIRL has been unbanned from Twitch as of October 12, comments pending.

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Well-known Twitch bounty hunter “StephenIRL” has been permanently banned from the site with next to no warning from the platform.

While many viewers think of Twitch as a haven for live streamed video games or “Just Chatting” segments, the site boasts a surprisingly wide array of content – including IRL (in real life) streaming.

StephenIRL is one of the most popular bounty hunters on Twitch, meaning that he tracks down people with warrants and takes them into a police station as his job.

However, it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing that while streaming on Twitch any longer.

Stephen was permanently banned from Twitch on September 11, revealing that he’d been booted from the site because he brandished a weapon on stream. 

“Official reason is ‘brandishing’ a weapon,” he said in a response to a fan asking why he’d been banned.

Needless to say, his viewers aren’t happy about this development, and have voiced their support for him on Twitter in his replies.

StephenIRL said he has since appealed the ban but won’t be able to stream as usual until the appeal is accepted. As of right now, there’s no telling when, or if, that will happen.

It’s hard to bounce back from receiving a permanent ban from the source of your livelihood – but a move to alternative streaming platforms like Mixer or YouTube could provide a solution in the interim.

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The streamer uploaded a broadcast on YouTube talking about the incident but has since taken it down in an effort to prevent toxicity.

“Already streamed it and took it down,” he said of the explanatory stream. “I don’t want anything taken out of context and interpreted as toxic.”

StephenIRL created his Twitch account in 2017 according to TwitchMetrics and boasted just over 90,000 followers at the time of his ban.

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We will keep you updated on whether Twitch overturns his ban after an appeal, but at the moment, it isn’t looking very good for him.