Twitch unban streamer after mistakenly believing he used a racial slur
Team Liquid streamer Ashkan ‘TF Blade’ Homayouni has had his ban on Twitch officially lifted after an outpouring of community backlash as well as support from his organization.
What happened to TF BLade?
TF Blade was originally banned for 30 days back on April 22 for League of Legends. The streamer immediately appealed the suspension, citing that he had been misheard and had only used the word “idiots”, not the “n-word.”
The appeal was unsuccessful but the ban was, controversially, reduced from 30 days to a week. On April 25, Team Liquid CEO Steve Arhancet swooped in with his support of TFBlade, stating that the team was reaching out to Twitch in the hopes of having the ban removed.
TF Blade joined Team Liquid in June 2018TF Blade gets unbanned
In a bid to make it clear as to what he had said, TF Blade tweeted out a slowed down video of the incident where he could be heard calling enemy players “idiots.”
On April 26, TF Blade was ultimately unbanned by Twitch and returned to League of Legends almost immediately. Announcing his return, the streamer tweeted: “FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,” before going live to his loyal viewers.
FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
— TF Blade (@tfblade) April 27, 2019
TF Blade almost banned again
Upon returning to his channel, it didn’t take long for the streamer’s viewers to start poking fun at the situation. He received a donation welcoming him back by calling him a “nidiot.”
TF Blade immediately responded by calling his viewers “idiots,” before laughing and screaming out “fuck” after coming to the realization of what had happened. He ultimately recognized that he may have to cut down on his use of the “i-word” in case it gets him into any further accidental trouble with the livestreaming platform.
While streamers won’t want to censor themselves too much – some explicit rage moments on Twitch are utterly hilarious – they may have to be careful with how they say things just in case it is misconstrued and they end up with a similar situation to TF Blade.
Team Liquid’s Steve Arhancet did say that they were going to ask Twitch for an apology to the streamer for what had happened, but if they did, that has yet to be made public.