Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys claims that William ‘WillNeff’ Neff’s Twitch ban was OfflineTV’s fault, not Austin ‘Mr Wobbles’ O’Brien’s, the music artist he interacted with who took responsibility.
Twitch banned WillNeff on July 17 following his interactions with Mr Wobbles, who was banned on the platform three years ago for “freaking out” on someone who was allegedly harassing him.
The pair received an overwhelming amount of support and the company was heavily criticized for the ban. Despite that, WillNeff’s ban hasn’t been overturned and he’ll probably need to serve out the sentence.
But that didn’t stop him from trying to get Mr Wobbles’ own ban overturned, and the appeal was successful.
As grateful as he was, Mr Wobbles still felt responsible for getting WillNeff banned. But Pokimane believes the onus isn’t on him.
Instead, she believes it’s on OfflineTV for allowing him to join their Rust server in the first place.
“Why is that guy on our Rust server?” she said. “Because that’s a walking liability to have a banned streamer. That put’s everybody in breach of [the terms and conditions].”
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“Secondly, why did they only ban Will? Was he the one that hung out with the guy the most? I’d assume not.
“Either way, I don’t think this was worth a ban, especially given the context and circumstances of him being on a streamer service,” she added. “If anything, it’s honestly the server’s fault. It’s our fault for doing that.”
Pokimane is one of many streamers who claimed the ban was undeserved. The consensus is that Twitch was quick to pull the trigger and needs to clarify the rules surrounding banned creators appearing on other streams.
WillNeff still needs to serve out the ban regardless of who was responsible, but it’ll be over soon and his fans can’t wait to see him back in action.