Imane “Pokimane” Anys is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch, and right now many are calling for her to be banned from the streaming platform after she accidentally showed pornography during a recent stream, which is a clear violation of Twitch’s streaming rules, and is a violation that has landed plenty of streamers bannings and suspensions in the past.
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The incident happened earlier this week when Anys was reacting to user-submitted content that goes through moderation. This is a common segment for the streamer, but it’s what has landed Pokimane in hot water. According to the streamer, all user-submitted content is sent to a Google Doc where it undergoes moderation. However, it appears the document was either hacked or one bad link slipped through moderation because when Pokimane opened one of these links, she was redirected to a pornography website, featuring nudity and sexual content. Pokimane was quick to close the link, but not before she let out a scream in shock and showed the website to her massive viewership.
At the moment of publishing, Twitch has not banned or suspended the streamer for the incident, and at this point, it’s unlikely it will. While the streamer is probably relieved her accident is going unpunished, the lack of punishment hasn’t gone unnoticed.
If pokimane doesn’t get banned, then no one on twitch should get banned for accidentally showing nudity. I see streamers getting banned weekly for this though. Why is there such a blatant double standard? Just make it so streamers don’t get banned if it’s clearly an accident.
— Scarce (@JohnScarce) May 20, 2020
Responding to calls for her banning, Pokimane explained in a stream the following day that Twitch contacted her and gave her a warning, but that’s all the Amazon-owned platform issued. According to the streamer, because this isn’t a frequent issue, it’s not enough to lead to a ban.
“They’re like, ‘You have to be really careful about that kind of stuff.’ I’ve definitely had issues like this in the past too,” said Pokimane. “It’s just that I’ve been streaming for so long that it’s not very frequent or it’s not like frequent enough to lead to a ban.”
Anys added that she would understand if Twitch decided to suspend or ban her, however, she doesn’t think this is an example of “double standards,” citing a fellow male streamer who recently made the same mistake and avoided the ban hammer.
At the moment of publishing, Twitch has not commented on the incident, and it probably won’t. It has a policy of staying silent when it comes to rule enforcement.
