As one of the most popular live-streaming platforms, Twitch boasts a wide variety of content creators, from IRL streamers to pro gamers and more. Sometimes, these streamers are hit with bans for unexpected reasons that leave them confused, including Gabepeixe’s ban for a seemingly innocent Pink Floyd poster.
Brazilian streamer Gabriel “Gabepeixe” Baptista announced that he received a three-day ban from the site in a Tweet on September 23.
According to Baptista, he was suspended from the platform due to showing the album cover for Pink Floyd’s “Back Catalogue” – but that’s not the most mind-blowing part of the ban, by far.
As it so happens, the album cover in question wasn’t even his. Rather, Baptista was watching another streamer’s broadcast during his own stream, which contained the album cover in question in view of the camera.
However, it wasn’t copyright infringement that resulted in Baptista’s ban: the “Back Catalogue” art features a series of nude women with their backs turned to the camera, with their bodies painted to resemble the band’s other album covers, likely posing a breach of Twitch’s Community Guidelines.
In his Tweet, Gabe explained that he’d been banned for showing the album, which appeared on another streamers broadcast. The streamer in questions has been streaming on Twitch for over a year without a ban, with the poster in full view.
“…Twitch will [ban] me for three days because of a Pink Floyd album frame, which appeared during a video of a [guy] who has been live on Twitch for one year and never happened,” Twitter’s translation reads.
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Rapaziada passando pra avisar que a twitch vai me pranchar por 3dias por causa de um QUADRO do album do PINKFLOYD, que apareceu durante um video de um rapaz, sendo que o mesmo faz live na twitch a 1 ano e nunca ocorreu nada, enfim só ãvisando pra vcs e pedindo desculpas… :broken_heart: pic.twitter.com/t5VpDv64Nq
— Gabepeixe (@gabepeixe) September 23, 2019
Needless to say, Gabe’s ban sparked outrage across the net, with fans and bystanders alike scratching their heads at what seems to be a wildly confusing suspension.
“It’s album art that includes body painting, which is from another channel, but this guy get banned?” one Reddit user wrote of the issue. “What?”
Others pointed out that live body painting is allowed while an album containing women wearing body painting warranted a supposed ban – but this wouldn’t be the first time streamers have been suspended for unexpected reasons.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LivestreamFail/comments/d8dkdy/brazillian_streamer_banned_3_days_for_showing/
A total of eight streamers have reported being banned for unspecified “fraudulent charges” after receiving large donations of bits from viewers using multiple accounts, only receiving automated messages in response to their queries.
Thus far, both Twitch and Baptista have yet to expound upon his ban. But with multiple instances of unexpected suspensions for “sexual content” cropping up across the site (such as a cosplayer being banned for wearing a Chun-Li outfit), Twitch is in the public eye for once again for its controversial moderation.