Content creator “YourMotherIsaFish” has been hit with an indefinite Twitch ban, with the reason given “Harassment via Username.” The ban has now been lifted.
A Twitch streamer for many years, “Yourmotherisafish” was handed an indefinite Twitch ban on April 11. The streamer reports that this happened right in the middle of her Resident Evil 3 stream.
“There’s no way, @TwitchSupport I just got banned LIVE for my username, even though you’ve used my clip with it before and it was fine,” Fish shared on Twitter moments after being banned from the platform.
According to the ban notification, the “yourmotherisafish” name constituted “harassment via username”, violating the platform’s community guidelines.
there's no way@TwitchSupport I just got banned LIVE for my username, even though you've used my clip with it before and it was fine????????? pic.twitter.com/m46Y1rAupY
— fish 🐟 (@yourmotherisafi) April 11, 2023
Curiously, other users and Fish herself were quick to point out that official Twitch media previously used clips from her live stream which often featured her full username.
Former Twitch staff member djWHEAT tweeted: “I’d say you’ve got reasonable grounds for an appeal,” featuring a screenshot of a post from the official Twitch account featuring Fish and her full username.
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I’d say you’ve got reasonable grounds for an appeal. https://t.co/elKCJ2nwWg pic.twitter.com/bOrGqQSaQb
— djWHEAT (@djWHEAT) April 12, 2023
Twitch lifts ban for “harassment” via username
On April 12, the ban was lifted, as the official Twitch Support account responded to the streamer.
“Hey Fish, our team doesn’t work directly on safety issues such as this, though a member of the Safety team has informed us that this suspension has been removed. Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience whilst the relevant team investigated this,” wrote a member of the support team.
Hey Fish, our team doesn't work directly on safety issues such as this, though a member of the Safety team has informed us that this suspension has been removed.Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience whilst the relevant team investigated this 💜
— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) April 12, 2023
This is not the first time however that streamers have been left stumped by bans due to their username.
In 2020, streamer “Piece of Sheet” was banned for an “inappropriate” username, as was “Pajja.”
Some of these bans could be automated, as Twitch attempts to crack down on real harassment through the use of offensive usernames. Bot accounts with hateful usernames have been used in “hate raids” in the past, as usernames are not picked up by automod like chat messages are.