Twitch bans streamer who faked his own swatting
There are a couple things you probably shouldn't do to celebrate acquiring 800,000 followers on Twitch. Faking your own swatting at the end of a 24-hour live event, as streamer Trick2g recently did, is at the top of the list. Trick2g, who focused primarily on League of Legends during his broadcasts, can be seen casually chatting with viewers when two "police officers" bust in and haul him away.
Trick2g's manager, Cher Gambino, later confirmed that the scene was faked in a later post on the streamer's website. "'Now, I know some of you are saying...'Cher it is not funny to make a joke about being swatted,'" she wrote. "There is always someone that thinks only their sense of humor is what matters and if they don't think it is funny then it couldn't possibly be. That is why our Country is in the shape it is now, because we fear making light of anything that might be thought of as controversial." Remember kids, if you don't think a fake swatting is funny, that's your problem. And Twitch, who didn't think it was all that funny either. The prank went down last Friday. By Monday, Trick2g's account had been banned. There was also significant blowback on social media.
@ZVFavion @LolStvicious whoever that person is is stupid as fuck, how is it oversensitive when its a traumatizing experience for real swats
— Marcel Feldkamp (@MarcelFeldkamp) August 3, 2015
Gambino, however, remained steadfast in the assertion that the prank really was funny and its critics were simply being wet blankets. She replied to the banning and social fallout of the prank by telling Kotaku:
If you saw the stream, there were theatrics the whole time. We had sailor girls, pirate girls, singing bears, singing pigs, prize wheels. His stream was from 3PM Friday to 3PM Saturday. I can't imagine a swat team waiting for someone to finish a stream—not to mention the actors were the same people on stream the day before setting up, not to mention they were laughing. I don't know what to tell you other than: if it offends one person it must be wrong. We have lost the right to comedy. Or we have at least lost the right to comedy if it offends one person, which means Saturday Night Live must really have to watch what they do.
There's no word on how long Trick2g will remain banned, but given that he's one of the site's more popular streamers, it likely won't be for long. We've reached out to Twitch for comment and will update when they reply.
Update: A Twitch representative has replied for our request for comment with, "We don't comment on terms of service violations." So, yeah.
[Image Credit: Shutterstock / Martin Spurny]
