Streaming personality xQc is no stranger to bans. This year alone, the streamer has been banned twice, once from Twitch after stream sniping and another time for streaming an inappropriate game. But this time, his ban is from Twitter, and it seems to be a massive mistake.
xQc has several clips from his own stream on his Twitter, taken from Twitch. This small samples of streams, which can be clipped from live streams, are usually only about 10 seconds long. xQc is not the only streamer with a few clips on other social media sites. When he got locked out of his Twitter for a DMCA complaint, he was surprised to find it was a clip of his own Twitch stream.
Twitch streamer received a DMCA takedown from his Twitter account for a one-year-old, ten-second clip from his own stream, cut from Twitch. Twitter sent a notice, claiming that a copyright complaint had been levied against his account for the clip, and that he had to review Twitter's copyright rules to remove the lockout.
The Tweet in response to his lockout called the Twitter DMCA claim "well thaught[sic] out" in a very sarcastic manner, and went on to wonder if he might end up in jail next. This was in reference to the American stimulus package bill that includes the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act, an amendment to the U.S. Code to make it a felony to unlawfully stream copyright-protected content, punishable by up to ten years in jail.
With all the seemingly heavy-handed bans and suspensions, it may seem like a no-win situation for streamers trying to protect themselves from DMCA takedowns on any platform. It is pretty obvious that, since the streamer was DMCA'd for content that old and from his own stream, that the process is not being very closely looked at by Twitter.
These automated bans and lockouts can spell danger for anyone wanting to stream, or even post it, in the future. Hopefully if enough users complain, then social media sites will begin to take a closer look at the copyright rules on their respective sites.
Thankfully, it looks like Twitch is looking to do what other social media sites should aspire to; in its newest updated to the TOS that includes making blackface and Confederate flags bannable, there is language that gives streamers a little hope. Twitch is looking move away from the zero-tolerance policies to have a more case-by-case basis. Hopefully, other social media site can do the same.