Banned VALORANT streamer PROD denies saying homophobic slur
VALORANT streamer PROD found himself in a pickle during his stream on Twitch earlier this week as the platform banned him in front of his over 10,000 viewers after supposedly saying a homophobic slur.
In the wake of the ban, PROD clarified that he only said “f**k it” during the live stream and argued that the platform had misinterpreted his sentence as a homophobic slur.
At the time of writing, the ban on PROD’s account has been lifted. However, Twitch’s ban policy has always been irritating for streamers, and many content creators have experienced a similar case. Shanks, another VALORANT streamer, was banned for almost the exact reason — prompting many to think that this policy was one of the main reasons several stars parted ways with the platform.
More on PROD’s ban
The Amazon-owned streaming platform is known for its strict community guidelines and policies, often criticized by streamers for significantly limiting their freedom and, to some extent having them under an unbending streaming schedule.
Despite these criticisms, the platform apparently holds a great degree of faith in it. While the ban on both Shanks and PROD’s accounts ended up being lifted in a short amount of time, it is undeniable that such events had set forth a series of disappointments on Twitch.
Before the ban was lifted on his account, on July 25, PROD shared a video on Twitter with text that reads, “Woke up still not unbanned @twitch.” PROD received a myriad of support from his fans and called out Twitch for its sloppy ban system. Eventually, PROD’s ban was lifted.
Fellow Twitch streamer Jake Lucky also went to Twitter to criticize the platform for carelessly banning Shanks and PROD. In addition, he also pointed out that when it comes to the latter, the platform was not quick enough to rectify its mistake compared to the former’s case.
“On back-to-back days Twitch has banned Valorant streamers PROD and Shanks for saying “f*ck it” while thinking they said the homophobic f slur. Shanks was quickly unbanned for it, PROD remains banned,” Lucky wrote.
Ongoing disappointment in Twitch
It is no secret that there is an exodus of creators from Twitch to another streaming platform, mainly to YouTube Gaming, a gaming arm of the Google-owned popular video-sharing site, YouTube. Aside from the reasons mentioned above, it has been reported that Twitch’s plan to cut down revenue share percentage for top partners is also one of the key reasons why the content creators are leaving the platform.
Variety streamer Lily “LilyPichu” Ki and Fortnite professional player Ali “Myth” Kabbani were the latest addition to the list of Twitch’s departing stars. The two and other former Twitch streamers, such as 100 Thieves co-owner Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, as well as Ludwig “Ludwig” Ahgren, left the platform citing at least one of the concerns above.
Considering that YouTube offered more lucrative gains via its streamer-exclusive deals, which was the reason that reeled in these former Twitch stars, it is possible that the purple platform’s policies — including its stringent and occasionally unreasonable ban policy — made content creators believe that they could no longer grow in Twitch.
