Iván “Spreen” Buhajeruk, a well-known Argentinian streamer, made news last week when Twitch banned him, halting one of the fastest-growing streamers’ ascent.
Nobody knew the reason, and he appeared to be clueless as well—at least, that’s what he wanted his supporters to believe. It turns out that he was aware of the reason for the ban all along but chose to conceal it when he filed an appeal. He said in a YouTube video on Oct. 25; “Twitch banned me for 30 days. I didn’t reveal the reason on social media because I wanted to keep it a secret until I appealed the ban.”
It worked out. The suspension has been cut down to 14 days. The explanation was provided in an email from Twitch, who said: “Via panels, this user has set up a scheme where they offer various items of monetary value and/or Twitch features (e.g. channel subscriptions, VIP status) in exchange for channel points which are accumulated through watching the broadcaster’s content, as such artificially increasing their Twitch statistics.”
Additionally, they provided seven examples of proof, each worth between 200,000 and 2.3 million points. ElSpreen claimed that Twitch had previously warned him about it, but the warnings were ambiguous. He’s not delighted about it for that reason, but he’s prepared to take it on the chin.
“It’s a pretty screwed up thing to get banned for, but Twitch takes it very seriously, so even though it seems like bullshit, it is what it is. I work under Twitch’s rules, so I have to respect them. I can’t complain. I have to accept it.”
On Nov. 3, Spreen’s suspension from Twitch streaming will be lifted. He pleaded with viewers to refrain from flooding Twitch with abusive remarks in the interim, arguing that doing so would only make the issue worse. He said; “The only thing to do right now is accept that I was wrong.”
