Controversy seems to follow Twitch streamer xQc whether he likes it or not. Whether it has to do with his in-game behavior getting him repeatedly banned from Grand Theft Auto 5 RP servers, or the way his community is known to bully and harass other streamers, xQc's reputation is apparent. Rarely do xQc's controversies, as well as Twitch's ongoing moderation issues, come together like they did in the case of Twitch streamer Lady Hope.
Lady Hope is a small but quickly growing Twitch streamer who focuses on Grand Theft Auto 5 RP like many others. However, they have the privilege of being the police officer that arrested xQc in a recent heist. What resulted was a stream of harassment that would ultimately lead to Lady Hope's ban from Twitch, followed shortly by an apology and ban retraction from the platform.
In practice, things are surprisingly simple. Following Lady Hope's run-in with xQc, some of his viewers began to harass Lady Hope. This includes tracking down her Instagram, which is now set to private, and sending her abusive messages via multiple online methods. What got Lady Hope banned was reading one of these harassing emails on her stream.
The email is explicit, filled with homophobic language, rhetoric encouraging self-harm, and general bullying and harassment. However, there's no strictly banned language, and contextually Lady Hope is the victim, not the perpetrator in this instance. That's likely why Twitch quickly turned around and apologized about the ban, saying there had been a mistake. Lady Hope's Twitch ban has been reversed, and she's since started streaming again.
There's some confusion over the cause of Lady Hope's ban, specifically with comparison to a recent Disguised Toast ban. Toast was banned for a video clip he watched in which an opposing player called him a homophobic slur. Some believe the two situations are identical, but Toast didn't have his ban reversed. The notable difference is that the video clip Toast watched has an explicitly banned slur in it, which Twitch expects streamers to prevent by screening material. That difference is likely to be controversial, however.
It's an unfortunate situation all around. Lady Hope didn't deserve to be harassed or banned. What's more unfortunate is that Twitch seemingly has no policy to follow through in order to stop people's harassment, despite knowing it stems from a specific Twitch streamer's community, in this case from the community around xQc.