Twitch streamer claims he was “unfairly” banned for making fun of himself

Twitch streamer and Minecraft speedrunner ‘Feinberg’ is claiming that he was banned on the platform for making an alternate account that poked fun at himself.

There have been quite a few Twitch bans over the years that many in the community have viewed as bizarre, but a recent suspension for an act of self-deprecation may be the strangest yet.

On June 24, the streamer posted to Twitter that Twitch had taken action against him after he made an account called “feinbergsucks” – poking fun at his existing account name.

It’s unclear if Twitch knew that it was Feinberg himself who made the account, but that didn’t stop the Amazon-owned platform from suspending it.

“Hi Twitch Support, my alternate Twitch account ‘feinbergsucks’ was perma suspended yesterday for an inappropriate name,” he wrote on June 23. “Am I not allowed to poke fun at myself? I can’t stream or use Twitch on my main in fear of TOS and I don’t believe the suspension is warranted, please help me out.”

The streamer made an interesting point. It’s against Twitch’s rules to stream on another account while an alternate is suspended, and because it was indefinite, it’s essentially a perma ban on his primary account, as well.

One day later he tried again, once more tagging Twitch, hoping for some clarity.

“Hi Twitch Support, day 2 of me being unfairly suspended on my alternate account ‘feinbergsucks’ for making fun of myself!!” he cried. “I’ll delete the account or change the name I don’t care – I stream fulltime and will break ToS if I use my main account.”

Unfortunately, Twitch never responded, essentially leaving the streamer stranded and waiting for an email reply, which can take quite a long time.

Twitch doesn’t comment on individual suspensions and it’s unclear if there was something else besides the name of the alternate account that could have contributed to the ban, but the situation has become one of the wildest in recent memory.

Hopefully, Twitch can resolve this matter quickly so Feinberg can return to streaming, but for the time being, he’s pretty much banned by proxy.