Twitch reduces Fareeha’s ban from 30 days to 4

A decrease in the ban looks like a short-term fix.

Screengrab via Fareeha
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Just days after Twitch told her she wouldn’t be able to stream for a month, Fareeha Anderson’s ban has been reduced to just four days.

Following a stream in which Fareeha called South American Overwatch players “shit,” Twitch handed her a 30-day suspension, citing her insults as “hate speech.”

Fareeha put out a TwitLonger post issuing a lengthy apology, but the ban still came in. Following her post showing the email Twitch sent her, several people in the community spoke out against this decision.

Specifically, people were up in arms about how such a common occurrence like calling a subset of players “shit” at a game could now be considered hate speech. If a phrase that gets thrown around in nearly every competitive game is now hate speech, where does that line truly begin?

Richard Lewis, the director of talent and programming at ESP Gaming, responded to several people who said this was a good thing. He said that if this is the direction things are going, every person with a decent sized following will need to follow a different set of rules.

Not only did people like Lewis speak out, but esports consultant Rod Breslau also compiled evidence that a South American Discord server was purposefully trying to harass and grief her during the stream. This, along with a large amount of outcry against this ban, must have reached someone at Twitch.

On Feb. 14, Fareeha announced that she’d see her followers live in four days, meaning Twitch cut down her ban from the initial 30-day suspension.

https://twitter.com/FareehaAndersen/status/1096232761868804096

Although the length of her ban was reduced, it’s unclear if a strike against her channel or any other secondary issues will also be resolved.

Author
Image of Cale Michael
Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.