Although Twitch is the biggest video game broadcasting website on the internet, it does have its fair share of critics who have taken umbrage to the company's policies and actions in recent history. The streaming platform may have record billions of hours last month, but it's often the subject of controversy, particularly the "hate raid" scandal from a couple of months back. Now, it looks as though it's in hot water with the community once more, as a streamer has posted about having their custom emote banned by the site for allegedly being "too sexual."
In a post to Twitter recently, Twitch streamer Meowriianne uploaded an image of one of her custom emotes, which shows a cartoon mushroom in a hot tub. Beneath this, another tweet features a screenshot from an email the user received from the site saying that the emote had been banned due to a breach of the terms of services, which disallows images related to "sexual content or nudity." She also showed another of her mushroom emotes, which seemingly was not banned by Twitch, despite the cartoon-y character looking "nude."
This has caused others to comment on the tweet, as well as make a thread about it on Reddit, showing a certain degree of confusion, as well as suggesting that the site is acting somewhat hypocritically. The crux of the debate centers around the idea that, with Twitch having a separate category for hot tub streams, in which broadcasters can be seen in pools or hut tubs, some of whom do so wearing little clothing, it seems odd that it would ban an emote for being overtly sexual.
Some have suggested that Meowriianne's emote does resemble a phallic object, especially when animated, but others feel that it doesn't make sense for the company to allow hot tub streams, but have taken action against this person's emote and outright banned it. Twitch is often the subject of controversial bans, though these are usually centered around streamers themselves being kicked off the site rather than custom emotes.
It seems that the platform is often being called out by its user base and the surrounding community for some of its questionable practices. The recent hate raid controversy on Twitch is perhaps the most recent example of ways in which the site is criticized. It remains to be seen whether the company will reinstate the emote after some consideration, but for now, it seems though Meowriianne will have to make do with some different Twitch emotes.
Source: Reddit