xQc hit with five-hour Twitch ban over NBC Olympics stream

Twitch’s biggest streamer, Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, was banned from the platform for just shy of five hours on July 28, with his latest suspension ⁠— the fourth time he has been blocked from streaming ⁠— likely due to rebroadcasting several events from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The last image shown on the Canadian’s channel before his ban was him watching the Judo match between Austria’s Michaela Polleres vs Japan’s Arai Chizuru.

xQc commented soon after, admitting he believed the suspension ⁠— which ended up lasting just 295 minutes ⁠— was related to “live DMCA” over rebroadcasting the international sporting event. He said, “I took necessary precautions and thought it would be fine. Really didn’t expect it, but I could’ve easily avoided this.”

During his stream, xQc floated Twitch guidelines, and told viewers that he could just disable the VOD in question afterward, and “be in the clear.”

Tokyo 2020 has a heavier DMCA presence, however. Broadcasting corporations are reportedly using live-tracking technology to snipe offending streams, automatically taking them offline if any copyrighted material is pinged.

Dexerto can confirm xQc’s Tokyo 2020 stream broadcast has been removed from the platform. Whether this was by the Twitch star or Twitch itself is not clear. The streaming website, which is owned by Amazon, has not made an official comment on the live DMCA process surrounding the Olympics either.

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“Sorry for everyone involved, including the viewers,” Lengyel wrote on Twitter on July 28. “I’ll be better/smarter next time, and follow guidelines more strictly.”

This is the Canadian’s fourth Twitch ban since the start of 2020. His first ban came in March 2020 where he was forced off the platform for three days. The one after that was only for a single day, just a few months later.

xQc copped a lengthier ban in November, when he was benched for seven days.

This time, however, Twitch didn’t make the 25-year-old sit on the sidelines for long; just five hours after his original suspension, xQc’s fourth platform ban was lifted. The French Canadian has yet to reveal why his suspension was ended early.

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xQc isn’t a stranger to the strict rules of Twitch. He’s been banned in the past and even defended the platform’s enforcement guidelines just recently.