TwitchCon 2019 is ongoing over the weekend and like every year, it's not without its controversies. The latest involved IRL streamer Yuber, who has been banned from Twitch for breaking the platform's rules on "Invasion of Privacy." While Twitch doesn't provide specific details regarding its bans, it's likely due to Yuber being asked to stop recording two women and only stopping once he discovered that they were Twitch staff.
In summary, Yuber is IRL streaming at TwitchCon and was being somewhat controversial. He was approaching women and asking them to be his girlfriend and flirting in an exaggerated and aggressive manner. Yuber, who is walking down a sidewalk in San Diego, sees two women sitting in a restaurant's outside seating and approaches them. With his camera out, he says, "I'ma be honest, I need a girlfriend. Not like that! I'm not asking you, but I've been single for quite some time."
One of the women directly responds to Yuber, stating, "I really appreciate you but I don't want to be on camera right now, because I've been working at the convention all day. Can we pick this up tomorrow?" However, instead of turning off his camera or leaving the women alone, Yuber continues. He asks the woman who spoke to him if they'll see each other tomorrow. He asks if she'll give him her phone number. And it's only when he asks if she's Twitch staff and she says yes that Yuber turns and runs down the street.
According to Yuber's official Twitter account, his Twitch ban will last for 14 days. For the time being, he plans to continue creating content on his YouTube channel. Yuber says he believes his encounter with the two women is the reason for his ban. Yet he also claims that he to be about confused why he was banned. "Unless they tell me something, then I will probably keep making the same mistake."
Yuber likely broke several of Twitch's community guidelines during his broadcast. For example, he continued recording the women despite being asked not to record. He also approached the women while they were in a restaurant with an expectation of privacy. And he also, to a degree, shared personally identifiable information about the women by revealing them to be staff after he was asked not to record further. Unfortunately, as a result, whether it was Yuber's intent or not, both women are being targeted by vitriolic Twitch viewers who see Yuber's ban as unfair.
To be fair, in Twitch's own CEO's words "intent and context matter." Yuber's intent was seemingly harmless and the context was all in fun. By the Twitch CEO's own words there's room to appeal Yuber's ban. Twitch's moderation team certainly has its work cut out for it.