Twitch apologizes after banning streamer for “offensive” username

A Twitch streamer who was inexplicably banned indefinitely, with Twitch citing his “inappropriate” username, has been unbanned and received an apology from the platform.

Twitch’s moderation actions are under constant scrutiny among the community of both streamers and viewers. Streamers will often complain of unjust suspensions, and unclear reasons given (or rather, not given) for their punishment.

One streamer to fall victim to this error was ‘pavlle_’ – a small streamer with only 59 followers, whose story went viral on Reddit, after the platform banned him permanently for a supposedly “inappropriate” username.

The username in question was “Pajja_” – in Spanish, this word has a colloquial meaning, which would indeed be offensive.

However, the streamer, Pavlle (as he now goes by), is Serbian, not Spanish, and so when he was suspended for his name, was totally bemused.

On October 8, he shared his ban notification on Twitter, which said “Reason: Using an inappropriate username”, and confirmed the length of the suspension as “indefinite.”

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“It’s been a good run, thank you all for continued support,” Pavlle said. “Apparently my Twitch name “Pajja_” my nickname I had for YEARS is offensive somehow.”

For almost a month, Pavlle received no response from Twitch after he filed a support ticket to dispute the suspension.

However, thankfully, his story went viral on the popular subreddit r/LivestreamFail, accruing over 14,000 upvotes after it was posted on November 6.

Only hours after this thread began to gain momentum, Twitch sent an email to Pavlle, confirming he was no longer banned, and stating that the suspension was a mistake on their part.

The timing of the email, coinciding with the now-viral Reddit post, does raise questions, as it’s unlikely (although possible) that it was coincidental.

If the story had not been shared to Reddit, would Twitch have noticed and acknowledged the mistake?

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“I am glad I am unbanned at least,” Pavlle said. But, he also highlighted that it took “over a month” for a mistake to be rectified. For some streamers, who make their career from broadcasting, this could be a devastating loss of income.

This follows after another streamer, “Piece of Sheet”, was banned for his apparently “inappropriate name” – despite using it for eight years.