PewDiePie Banned On Twitch, Despite Not Actually Streaming In Years
PewDiePie's fans were confused late last night when the alert came through that he'd been booted from Twitch. Twitter account StreamerBans, which tracks the latest suspensions and removals from the Amazon-owned streaming platform, suddenly tweeted that PewDiePie was no longer on Twitch, prompting a flood of confused responses from followers. And it's no wonder why people have been perplexed by this news: Despite the fact that his channel has recently been active, PewDiePie hasn't personally streamed on the channel in a few years. The content creator signed an exclusive deal with YouTube back in 2020, which is where he's continued to post reaction videos, occasionally interact with fans, and update his followers on his life in Japan through a series of vlogs. So how in the world did he get banned from Twitch?
The bizarre saga of PewDiePie's renewed Twitch presence kicked off back in March, when the dormant channel suddenly roared into life — only to play a bunch of old episodes of "Trailer Park Boys." The channel also began cycling through archived videos from PewDiePie's older Twitch streams as the channel was rebranded as the "PewDiePie Infinity Stream." And no, this wasn't some kind of belated, ill-advised tie-in with the "Halo" franchise or "Disney Infinity."
It surfaced that PewDiePie had apparently struck a deal with CoPilotMedia, a company that specializes in helping streamers maximize their online presence by monetizing their pre-existing content libraries. In other words, this group was helping PewDiePie make some money off of his reruns. But now that infinite stream has come to an abrupt halt, and fans and haters alike have their theories as to why.
The mystery of PewDiePie's Twitch ban
Over on Twitter and Reddit, fans and curious onlookers are weighing in on the bizarre resurgence and subsequent ban of PewDiePie's channel. One of the prevailing theories is that PewDiePie's infinite stream may not have taken all of Twitch's newer copyright laws into account. The company has become a lot more strict when it comes to playing licensed content, to the point where pretty much every streamer on the platform has been more worried about DMCA strikes in recent years. Twitch channels can be flagged, suspended, or outright banned for playing content they don't own, whether that be music or film. In the case of PewDiePie's channel, which has played literally hours of "Trailer Park Boys" reruns, that might have been the killing blow.
It's also possible that one of the older streams being replayed on the channel may have contained copyrighted video. Though PewDiePie left Twitch well before the TV-watching meta took the platform by storm, he was no stranger to a reaction stream. Any one of those could have tripped Twitch's alarms. It's also possible, as noted by a few fans on social media, that the Twitch channel could have made an error in pulling clips from PewDiePie's YouTube library, where content is policed somewhat different from Twitch. Another theory holds that one of the archived streams may contain references to sponsors who no longer back PewDiePie. As noted by a few Redditors, this could fly in the face of Twitch's newer policies surrounding branded content.
Of course, these are just the most innocuous theories making the rounds at the moment. Other commenters have different, significantly less safe-for-work ideas as to why the channel was given the axe by Twitch.
Did PewDiePie's Twitch channel play offensive content?
One of the most prevalent theories regarding PewDiePie's ban right now ties back into a controversial stream from 2017, which has since become known in online circles as "the bridge incident." During a "PUBG" match, PewDiePie flew off the handle at an opponent who took out his teammate on a bridge. The ensuing tirade notably included the use of a racial slur, for which PewDiePie has since apologized profusely. Of course, if the PewDiePie Twitch channel played this encounter as part of its automatic streaming package, then the apology doesn't halt Twitch from yanking the offensive stream.
Others believe the ban had less to do with something PewDiePie said, and more with something he once played. A number of Redditors have also noted that the Twitch channel apparently recently re-ran Pewds' older streams of a couple of racy games that have since been banned on the platform: "HuniePop" and "Yandere Sim."
At this time, neither Twitch nor PewDiePie have released a statement regarding the ban. Considering Twitch's policy prohibiting it from discussing specifics behind suspensions and Pewds' lack of Twitter presence, it's unlikely that we'll get to the bottom of this any time soon. For now, all fans can do is wait to see if the infinite PewDiePie stream ever resumes.