Twitch has cracked down on the word "cracker" in a big way in recent days. The Amazon-owned streaming giant continually fails to protect creators of colour, and has apparently now decided it's time to address "anti-white" racism.
It all started when popular streamer Hasan Piker was banned for saying "cracker", a derogatory term often levelled at white people. Because it's 2021 and our minds have all turned to soup, there are some who argue white people being called "cracker" is just as offensive as some the many slurs Black people have had to deal with over the past few centuries.
A debate was sparked after two of Hasan's Twitch mods were suspended for using the word. The streamer immediately argued against these suspensions, but was ultimately banned himself.
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Predictably, this has led to a much larger discussion among Twitch content creators about whether or not the word is okay to use. But as this debate rages on, Twitch clearly seems to have picked a side. In the last day, two more broadcasters have been suspended - one of them possibly for good.
On December 14, VaushVidya (82k followers) and Fawn (32k followers) were banned from Twitch.
Vaush described the current wave of bans as a "massacre", before adding they were "proud of Twitch for finally taking a stand against anti-white racism".
Fawn later added on Twitter she believes her ban is “for the same thing.”
Twitch’s community guidelines on slurs explain: “Using hateful slurs, either untargeted or directed towards another individual. We allow certain words or terms, which might otherwise violate our policy, to be used in an empowering way or as terms of endearment when such intent is clear.”
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The guidelines go to on to lay out some examples, including “entering a chat and spamming a slur”, “targeting an individual with a slur based on a protected characteristic” and “calling another player a slur in anger while streaming.”
Twitch added in 2020 following a quest for clearer guidelines: "Regardless of spelling or pronunciation, slurs used for the purpose of hate or harassment are not allowed.”
Featured Image Credit: TwitchTopics: Twitch
