Earlier this week, Twitch streamer and VTuber Shylily was banned for three days with no clear reason given. Her story mirrors that of many other high-profile streamers who, due to Twitch’s policy of not explaining the reasons for issuing bans, have to guess what they did wrong.
“I think it’s absolutely insane that you would sign a deal with this company, but they have every right to basically kick you off their platform without letting you know exactly why,” Shylily told me.
Shylily, who has around 20,000 subscribers and averages around 8,000 viewers per day, is unsure which part of her recent VRChat streams or any of her streams over the past few months may have provoked the ban. She received an email from Twitch just saying she had violated the terms of service of a live broadcast or VOD.
Subject to Twitch’s suspension policy (opens in new tab), it issues warnings to streamers depending on the type of violation, but can also ban anyone immediately, in some cases even mid-stream. Twitch uses a three-strike system for DMCA alerts, but Shylily says she’s only received one so far, so it seems unlikely that copyrighted material was the issue. I emailed Twitch about Shylily’s ban and didn’t get a response before this article was published.
Shylily’s streams regularly include what’s calling her (opens in new tab) “bro” and “racy” humor and have featured racy fan art. She is also a VTuber, which means that she portrays herself exclusively as a 2D and 3D avatar. In its guidelines (opens in new tab) For nudity and sexual content, Twitch says “augmented reality avatars” must follow the same rules as everyone else. Shy thinks her new VRChat model might be the problem.
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guessing game
Shylily’s new VRChat model, which she says she paid around $8,000 for and “planned to base future content on,” has her stripping off her outer layer of clothing, revealing only the tiny bikini underneath. It gives it a similar look to streamers going live from their pools or hot tubs (opens in new tab), but viewers suspect the revealing outfit and racy antics in one of her recent streams may have sparked the ban. The stream’s archive is not available, but Reddit user ReddishCat posted a clip (opens in new tab) where you can see her dancing on the beach in the outfit.
She shyly suggested it’s possible it wasn’t “obvious enough that despite the water and sand we were all over the beach” and therefore “the bikini gag might have been against it [Twitch’s terms of service].”
She told me it could also be a number of things she talked about on the stream, including a joke about pegging or calling PornHub “orange YouTube,” which she thinks could lead Twitch to believe she’s NSFW -Content promoted. However, it’s still unclear whether the breach was in one of her recent streams or one of the many others.
“I always have the impression that as long as you don’t make things sensual or directly sexual out of context and just have fun and laugh and enjoy your time, you’ll be fine,” she said.
“IRL streamers are allowed to paint their full nude bodies with nothing but covered nipples, shower in thong bikinis exposing their entire buttocks, rub themselves in body wash and sensually bathe all over their bodies with each sub on a 4K bubble count Stream while they chat for hours while sitting in a bathtub,” she said in her defence.
Shy used Twitch’s ban appeal system but was denied. She also opened a ticket and that too was denied. “Not knowing what caused the ban makes it very difficult to avoid it in the future,” she said.
❌ Twitch partner “Shylily” has been banned! ❌https://t.co/qBDCTvE73W#twitch #ban #firstban #partner #twitchpartner 🔅August 15, 2022
While the three-day ban is short compared to some of Twitch’s more severe penalties, it has resulted in Shylily being banned from her account, unable to view her Twitch Affiliate Agreement, and alternatively restricted (per her agreement) from streaming to YouTube . She says the hiatus will see her lose the hundreds of subscriptions she expected during that period, but she’ll be fine.
“But I can very well imagine streamers who can barely get through months without putting savings aside are having a very rough and frustrating time!” she said.
Shylily and the many other streamers who make a living on the platform are frustrated by Twitch’s lack of communication when it comes to abrupt suspensions. In May (opens in new tab), the streaming site said it wants to provide more context on the bans it broadcasts, but hasn’t made any further announcements on the implementation of that policy. At the time, Twitch said it stood by the accuracy of 99% of its suspension decisions.
communication problem
In 2020, dr. Disrespect permanently banned for a reason he feels Twitch never explained to him. His lawsuit against the platform fizzled out (opens in new tab) in March, when he posted a message on Twitter that read, “Neither party admits any wrongdoing.” That same month, controversial Just Chatting streamer Destiny was banned indefinitely and also received no reason from Twitch. Although both streamers had offensive clips to point out, Twitch’s refusal to communicate means they never have to defend their choices.
Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti, a transstreamer who was recently banned (opens in new tab) from Twitch for 28 days, said she was reported en masse by users for planning to show and discuss examples of the harassment she is suffering. Her appeal to the ban was denied by Twitch and the company did not respond.
Many see Twitch’s silence as a deliberate obfuscation so it can do as it pleases. As a result, bans on popular streamers, however brief, spark debates about what the breach may have been and whether or not the platform applies double standards to different types of streams and streamers. Last year, a data breach at Twitch revealed that Twitch used to maintain an “unbanned” list (opens in new tab) by major streamers to prevent inappropriate bans, so it’s clear the company was willing to be selective about its rules when needed.
When the flowing Moloch grows (opens in new tab)— Twitch says over 15 million new people went live in 2021 — there’s a lot of pressure on the platform to better support the users who lead them and prevent the spread of hate (opens in new tab) towards its marginalized community members.
Several of the biggest streamers including LilyPichu, Myth, DrLupo and TimTheTatman have left Twitch to sign exclusive deals with YouTube. While their absence hasn’t done much damage to Twitch’s streaming dominance, the platform’s most successful streamers don’t seem as committed to it as they probably would like.
Shylily will return to Twitch on Thursday, but will likely stay away from VRChat. She posted a tweet (opens in new tab) with the hashtag “#FreeLily” and a video jokingly promising the start of their “Seiso” era while playing a series of lewd clips.
⚠️UNBAN ANNOUNCEMENT⚠️Please come and witness my Seiso era!https://t.co/Q3DH9CbWvq Aug 18 4:29pm CESTJoin or be squarepeepeepoopoo#FreeLilywomp womp pic.twitter.com/24ly9jmrmHAugust 17, 2022
“I really want Twitch to be a good place. Really,” she said. “I enjoy Twitch culture a lot more than YouTube’s,” she said, but she also finds YouTube to be “a lot safer” than Twitch, and suggests that’s why YouTube is able to attract big streamers from the platform to lure away.