Twitch Accused Of Hypocrisy After Banning Streamer Over Account Age
Twitch's Terms of Service are once again being put under the microscope as the streaming platform has been called out for banning a streamer over their age. Time and time again, Twitch has been accused of having a "one rule for one, one for another" stance on its bans. Now, streamer AverageHarry has lost his account because it was created when he was under the age of 13 - Twitch's minimum for signing up.
With three million monthly streamers and 15 million active users, Twitch is about as big as they come in terms of content creation. With this many streamers to keep an eye on, it was always likely that some were going to slip through the net. Unfortunately, AverageHarry seems to have been the tool of his own undoing when he accidentally drew Twitch's attention the fact his account was made when he was underage. The community is now calling out Twitch for "hypocrisy".
Why was Twitch streamer AverageHarry banned over his age?
Tommyinnit's Twitch account was made when he was 11 years old. Gross hypocrisy from Twitch or what? from r/LivestreamFail
The latest development comes after AverageHarry was denied a partnership with Twitch and waited 72 days for a response to his application. As well as an explanation about why he's been denied a partnership, the young streamer has also been told AverageHarry will receive a perma-ban. Posting on Twitter, Harry said he'll release a video to give across his version of events. A Reddit post that points out Thomas Simons, aka TommyInnit, registered his account when he was just 11 has since blown up.
AverageHarry has found plenty of support, with critics saying more popular channels run by people of the same age haven't been banned - despite being made when the streamer was underage. Fortnite streamers were particularly in the firing line, with some throwing Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf and his 3.8 million followers under the bus. Given that Bugha is now 18, his time on Twitch started before he was technically allowed to be on there.
Not everyone was team AverageHarry though. One person wrote, "I'm not trying to be rude, but i think it's a just worthy ban, Twitch themselves are breaking UK law if they allow your Twitch to stay". Another added, "To be fair they did have rules that you ignored and did not follow so they can punish you! Actions have consequences...". Finally Rod "Slasher" Breslau pointed to Twitch's recent clampdown on breaking the rules. Interestingly, Slasher's tweet prompted a response that highlighted massive streamers who were underage when registering their accounts.
AverageHarry Twitch ban: What's next?
The facts speak for themselves, and alongside Bugha being 11 when he registered his account, Benjy "Benjyfishy" David Fish was apparently 10 and Kyle "Mongraal" Jackson was 12. The argument is that all of the above make Twitch too much money to have their accounts stripped.
There's some good news for Harry, with the popular streamer being told he can create a new account. Although this is a small silver lining, it means he's lost the 90k followers he'd amassed on his main account. Even though there's sure to be a huge campaign to get AverageHarry his followers back (and possibly even more), it's a massive blow. Unfortunately, Twitch has shown it has a no-nonsense approach to these matters and refuses to back down. As we've seen with Dr Disrespect's perma-ban, there's no coming back from this one.
Harry has since made a new account and is encouraging you all to follow him here. The AverageHarry scandal has raised interesting points that could theoretically rock Twitch and some of its biggest names to its core. How the situation develops remains to be seen, but either way, this looks like the tip of a very dangerous iceberg.
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