I ran into a vlog from Swifty where he talks about how his Twitch channel had received a permanent ban. Although he managed to appeal it, I think it’s one of those interesting cases to analyze and figure out what happened. Swifty has been generally a well established figure in the Twitch community and a well appreciated WoW content creator in addition to being fairly positive (I even got to meet him at one Blizzcon back in 2014). So what happened here?
Apparently, what went on was how Swifty began doing DoorDash deliveries to supplement his Twitch income partly to help with his wife’s pregnancy (or having a baby recently). Deciding to livestream his routes, Swifty said that he actually ended up having more viewers, which encouraged him to do more. Then the hammer came down and his wife had informed him of the ban. Thereafter, he made a video on YouTube to explain what happened and how he intended to appeal the ban (which was a permaban). The video was short and he looked genuinely devastated by the news mostly because Twitch was his only real source of income.
So as far as I know, Swifty had only a moderate amount of controversy over the years but generally had been considered a reliable streamer with a very niche audience. I recall a while back how Swifty did have some financial issues and that somehow Classic WoW eventually became the thing that partly saved his stream later on. The main thing I know about Swifty as far as his content is concerned is that back in the day, he ended up becoming famous making one shot Macro type of WoW Warrior videos. Beyond that he mostly focused on PVP type of game play and mostly stuck with WoW. Over time though, I think he lost a chunk of his audience from its height, especially once he started doing 24hr livestreams that mostly just were camera shots around his home while having little actual content. I think part of that ended up other alienating his audience or just made it seem exploitive (since you can’t really call nothing happening real content).
Regardless, I did check one of his shorts for a DoorDash clip he made because I was fairly sure why his account got permabanned. Sure enough within 10 seconds or so the issue was obvious: he wasn’t paying attention to the road. My guess is that someone at Twitch probably had a knee jerk reaction and went full force permaban because of how such content effectively is endangering the lives of others. It may seem minor but anyone who lives in a dense city would tell you that driving and doing something stupid like livestreaming is probably a crime. I’m certain no one at Twitch wanted to get blamed if an accident happened because they might get sued by DoorDash, who, unlike Swifty, would have the legal and financial arsenal to go after Twitch. In short, Swifty unwittingly violated Twitch’s ToS without really realizing what happened.
I did read in the comment section for the video how some defenders complained how other livestreamers get away with streaming their vacations. Without knowing the precise context, I can tell you that a basic vacation isn’t the same as creating a litigious situation in the states. And while Swifty had no real intention of doing harm and probably was reasonably cautious, the thing is that I doubt Twitch would want to chance the situation. Thus, they needed to take harsh action to get Swifty to realize what he had done. I don’t know (based on any video follow ups on YouTube itself) whether Swifty acknowledged the actual reason for his permaban but I would have no doubt what I’m saying is probably true.
Now, I suppose one might ask well Swifty really hasn’t been a major cause of issues and it’s like he’s doing something crazy like lighting himself on fire or smashing his head through a door on some drunk stream. I think it’s because he may have impressionable, young viewers that Twitch took action as a severe warning to others not to do this type of thing. I’m sure if Swifty was a bigger streamer, he would’ve been given a warning. Or perhaps, he would have a team that could contact Twitch directly to ask about the type of content he intended to produce. But I think because it was a spur of the moment thing where he didn’t ask permission, sign a waver, etc. they came down harsh on him.
Lastly, one might ask was a permaban too harsh a punishment, especially because Swifty generally hasn’t caused a lot of controversy/issues compared to other infamous streamers. Perhaps, it was. I think Twitch should’ve temporarily shutdown the stream and attempted to contact him directly to warn him what he was doing was wrong. I think Swifty would have handled the situation in a mature fashion rather than having an unprofessional meltdown. So that might be something Twitch could manage better in the future especially for veteran streamers who generally have been a long standing staple of what helped make Twitch successful in the first place.
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