Twitch has been experiencing a turbulent time which appears to be infused with a lot of drama. A key element in this situation has been the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Disrespect from the platform without any clear reasoning. While the famous streamer is banned neither the platform nor the individual has shed light on why. As a result, another streamer, Alinity, has revealed that they have been the focus of anger despite having no connection to the situation, apart from being successful on the same streaming service.
The streamer with over 1.2 million followers has been the focus of controversy before, with many users critiquing the way Alinity treats their pets. The streamer is undoubtedly controversial, but there has been little interaction between them and Dr. Disrespect. Dr. Disrespect was removed from the platform in the wake of Twitch taking a new stance on abuse on the platform and this has led to a lot of conjecture about the situation of the streamer's disappearance. Some viewers believe that Alinity is to blame for the situation.
In a stream with Twitch psychiatrist Alok "Dr. K" Kanojia, Alinity explained the situation from her perspective. "Dr. Disrespect got banned, okay — I’ve never met the guy, never talked to him, ever had an interaction with the guy. He got banned, and I was trending on Twitter with his ban. People telling me that it was my fault he got banned." Despite this position and lack of communication between the streamers, Alinity claimed to have frequent messages, "People were harassing me, like, ‘Why did you get him banned?'" While Twitch appears to be taking steps to stop abuse, it seems that streamers are still experiencing a lot of unpleasant messages and it will be interesting to see what the platform does next in the wake of these issues.
Many will feel that if Twitch had clearer rules, that these kinds of incidents could be avoided. While it is positive that Twitch is taking action against streamers, without providing a reason it seems that the platform is feeding conjecture and allowing unpleasant situations for other streamers. It seems that viewers are still trying to find evidence of why Dr. Disrespect has been banned and this may lead to more harassment for streamers. Despite this, the platform that knows what has happened is oddly silent.
It will be interesting to find out what happened to Dr. Disrespect and what Twitch intends to do to prevent the platform from becoming dominated by conjecture. At the moment, many will be eager to see Twitch implement concrete policies that safeguard viewers and streamers from abuse.