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Jasper Pickering
Aug 01, 2022
Twitch launches tool to detect banned users
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FaZe Clan streamer Kalei Renay has said that she “hates the internet” after Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming company, removed her emotes from its chat functionality.
Kalei, who has over 569,000 followers on her Twitch page, posted on Twitter about the ban, with a screenshot of the email from Twitch explaining why the offending emote was removed from chat.
According to Twitch, the emote broke the platform's rules against “Targeted insults, bullying and threatening or inciting abuse.”
Kalei responded by telling her Twitter followers, “I legit hate the internet lmao”.
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\u201ci legit hate the internet now lmao\u201d— FaZe Kalei (@FaZe Kalei) 1659165141
Kalei then lamented her situation and told her fans that she wasn’t in the mood to post on social media after the decision was made.
\u201cno memes today, just sadness and pain\u201d— FaZe Kalei (@FaZe Kalei) 1659202312
The emote in question was an illustration of a teddy bear, with their hand in the shape of an L on their forehead, to signify “loser”, which could be posted in the live-stream’s chat and viewers have been quick to label the move “ridiculous”.
\u201c@KaleiRenay That's absolutely ridiculous. Think about how many millions of times people have typed "L" in chat. I guess they're violating TOS, too.\u201d— FaZe Kalei (@FaZe Kalei) 1659165141
Other fans have also responded to the ban with their own sardonic responses.
\u201c@KaleiRenay this is very offensive to me. i made a wrong play in CSGO and all the bad people in my chat spammed this super scary emote. im glad it was removed.\u201d— FaZe Kalei (@FaZe Kalei) 1659165141
\u201c@KaleiRenay Now I can finally feel more safe on twitch. Honestly, you should of taken this down yourself. It promotes a bullying culture, calling people a loser is never cool. We are ALL winners, no matter what. You should be setting a better example especially for someone in FaZe. \ud83d\udcaf\u201d— FaZe Kalei (@FaZe Kalei) 1659165141
Other Twitch streamers have also had similar emotes removed from their channels as well, so it could be seen as a wider move to reduce negative responses in chat across the whole platform.
\u201c@KaleiRenay My L emote got removed as well :/ \n\nSo lame\u201d— FaZe Kalei (@FaZe Kalei) 1659165141
The L on the forehead is a universally known taunt, and one that even features in Fortnite as a rare emote titled “Take the L”.
Take The L - Fortnite Battle Royale (Emote)www.youtube.com
Presumably, Twitch doesn’t have any plans to ban one of its most viewed categories as well.
It’s not the first time a Twitch emote has been banned from the platform either. In January 2021, the popular “Pogchamp” emote was removed, after the person behind the emote encouraged violence at the Capitol Hill riots.
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