Fans May Know Why Sodapoppin Was Banned From Twitch
On April 13th, Twitch banned popular streamer Sodapoppin, and it's unclear when he will be back. This isn't the streamer's first ban, however. In 2020, Sodapoppin was banned for 24 hours following a suggestive VR Chat livestream. Famously, Sodapoppin uploaded a comedic apology video explaining the situation. Unfortunately, his current ban is no laughing matter and has the potential to be much longer.
One of the biggest gripes streamers have with Twitch is it is inconsistent and vague with its bans. For example, last month, streamer Destiny was baffled by an indefinite ban accompanied by nothing more than an automated message from Twitch. However, viewers can usually guess what got a streamer banned. In Sodapoppin's case, many are pointing toward a moment on his stream on April 9th while he was playing a video game quiz show. They may be right, as Sodapoppin has since attempted to justify his actions via social media.
Accidental blackface?
During his session of "Are You Smarter Than the Crowd?" Sodapoppin was tasked with giving his character a face. A clip that surfaced on Reddit showed that he started by adding brown paint across his character's whole face, even shouting the word "Blackface" — but it got worse. He then grabbed the red paintbrush and gave the character exaggerated bright red lips. Of course, these features were dominant in anti-Black characterizations in the past. Presumably, after realizing what he'd just done, he selected the green paintbrush and said, "I'm trying to do joker," before covering the character's face in green paint. Twitch has strict anti-racism rules detailed in its terms of service, so Sodapoppin's actions more than warrant a ban from the platform, if that is indeed what the ban was for.
However, Sodapoppin attempted to explain himself in a Reddit comment on the r/livestreamfail post. He was adamant that he wasn't trying to make a joke, and it was unintentional. Sodapoppin clarified that it was an accident, although he had initially meant to cover the chracter's face in brown paint. However that was "the extent of how far i wanted the joke to go i guess and then move on. So then i added an overexaggerated smile with lipstick, I thought just adding a red smiley to it, not realizing it added MORE racism to the blackface."
Whether Sodapoppin made an honest mistake or was too edgy with a joke is for the viewer to decide, but it may be a while before fans see Sodapoppin on Twitch again, as second bans are usually longer than the first.