Twitch has clarified its recent decision to permanently ban controversial streamer Adin Ross, revealing that the move was a response to the content creator's choice to feature hateful and unfiltered chat conduct during one of his broadcasts. Twitch banned Ross for the eighth and final time on February 25.
The 22-year-old has seen his fair share of controversies since he started streaming in 2019. Less than a year ago, Twitch handed Ross an indefinite ban over the use of "hateful slurs or symbols" sanctioned by the platform's community guidelines. The penalty was lifted after a month, making it Ross's longest Twitch ban to date; up until now, that is.
In a statement provided to Dexerto, Amazon's streaming service has now clarified that its decision to permanently ban Ross was prompted by an incident wherein the infamous entertainer featured "unmoderated hateful conduct in chat." While the Twitch community guidelines have a long list of content that qualifies as such, its comments on Ross specifically cite messages promoting anti-Semitism and general racism as an example of chat conduct that content creators are expected to attempt policing "in good faith." Though that statement leaves some room open to speculation, Dexerto points to a February 24 broadcast as the most likely reason for Ross's permanent ban.
Namely, Ross is said to have consciously featured unfiltered chat content from his new streaming platform Kick during the said broadcast. He continued to do so even after the chat produced multiple examples of anti-Semitic and otherwise racist comments, without condemning or making any effort to stop this influx of hateful conduct. This reportedly went on for over 20 minutes and is likely to be the inciting incident behind Twitch's decision to permanently suspend the controversial creator from its ecosystem.
As for the streamer at the center of this controversy, Ross already spoke out against Twitch following his permaban. During a weekend Kick broadcast, the Internet celeb made an overt suggestion that Twitch only responded to his antics as harshly as it did because he was a man, asking the platform whether its decision would still stand if he had "blue hair, makeup, and painted [his] nails." Most social media reactions to these comments outside of Ross's immediate fandom described his remarks as casual sexism at best and a misogynistic dog whistle at worst.
February has turned out to be quite a turbulent month for Amazon's streaming platform. Prior to permanently forbidding Adin Ross from using its services, Twitch has also handed out temporary bans to CodeMiko, Quqco, Kiaraakitty, Fedmyster, and F1NN5TER, among other popular content creators. On top of that, the platform issued another permanent ban to controversial streamer Sliker on February 7.