Twitch makes u-turn on Overwatch streamer Fareeha’s ban

Twitch has reduced the ban placed on streamer Fareeha Andersen after she was banned for “engaging in hateful conduct against a person or group of people,” following comments she made about South American and European Overwatch players.

Fareeha had been initially banned for 30 days with a community guidelines strike against her account for the comments she made during her February 7 stream – labeling South American players as ‘shit.’

She had apologized for her actions in a lengthy and detailed TwitLonger, but seemed surprised when she posted a screenshot of the email she received from Twitch notifying her of the ban.

However, she won’t have to wait as long as first thought before returning to the platform.

After plenty of public outcry, the severity of the ban and its length has been toned down – showing a u-turn rarely seen from Twitch.

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“I’ll see you guys live on twitch in four days,” Fareeha revealed in a simple tweet accompanied by a partying emoji.

There has been plenty of support – and resistance – for Fareeha having received a ban in the first place.

Esports journalist Richard Lewis tweeted his disbelief about the suspension: “What a fucking dumb take this is. You can’t say players from a region are shit at video games because it’s ‘hate speech?'”

As documented by esports insider Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau on Twitter, a South American Discord server took over Fareeha’s Twitch chat and was rife with “harassing, griefing and [stream] sniping.”

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The streamer even addressed that fact in her TwitLonger, stating that she had to defend herself as she was receiving sexist and homophobic comments. She added: “I call them out on it, I get aggressive and stand up for myself because if I don’t, who will? This is the aggression/anger that people might be talking about, but was honestly only in self-defense.

“None of this is intended as a means to excuse my behavior, but I do want to have my side of the story out there, y’know?”

While Fareeha should have her account reinstated within the next few days, there is currently no word on the community guideline strike that Twitch handed out.

Twitch has often operated on a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ basis – streamers have been banned permanently from the platform for receiving three.

As Fareeha did not state that her strike had been removed, it seems likely that it will remain.