Twitch under fire for deleting body painter’s channel without warning

Body painting Twitch streamer ForkGirl has revealed her dismay after her channel was apparently deleted without warning on June 5.

Body painting has been a contentious topic on Twitch for some time, but is generally accepted as an artistic venture that has attracted thousands of fans to the most skilled and popular streamers.

ForkGirl is one such streamer, who has had her run-ins with the platform in the past. She was banned indefinitely in February, which followed a previous ban in June 2019.

Although body painting is permitted, as has been expressly laid out by Twitch, there are strict rules about what and how much of the body must be covered.

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On June 5, ForkGirl tweeted, “I woke up this morning to my Twitch account deleted, with no email or communication from Twitch.”

She also shared images of her last two paints done on stream, to show that they did not breach community guidelines.

It is unclear whether Twitch has banned the account, although typically streamers are notified of suspensions through email, usually before action is even taken.

Although the platform does not share the exact moment that causes bans, the notification usually cites a specific guideline that was violated.

In this case, ForkGirl claims there was no email communication whatsoever. It’s possible that due to the previous bans, another alleged infraction would have prompted the outright deletion of her channel.

A number of fans and followers were angered by Twitch’s decision. Fellow streamer Djari was among those critical of the platform.

Another felt that Twitch had been targeting ForkGirl “in particular”, and reminded Twitch of their request to be held accountable for their moderation decisions.

ForkGirl says she ensures she stays within the boundaries set by the guidelines. After her previous ban in February, she wrote “My chest isn’t on stream until it has pasties, multiple layers of liquid latex, and chest painted.”

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The platform says it always takes context into consideration for all possible violations, with body painting being one primary example of a context that could mitigate certain behaviors that are otherwise not permitted.

Twitch does not comment on community guideline violations to respect the privacy of users.