Ryan Higa explains why his recent Twitch ban is concerning for the streaming community

Popular YouTuber and Twitch streamer Ryan Higa was recently banned and almost immediately unbanned by Twitch, for apparent "hateful conduct."

Ryan Higa was banned mid-stream while in a game of Among Us with the Offline TV crew. After a few brief minutes of confusion, his entire community rallied behind him to get Twitch's attention on the issue.

Within 20 minutes, Ryan Higa was unbanned and was issued an apology by Twitch. While the issue in itself was resolved quickly, it begs the question as to why it happened in the first place. Moreover, if a smaller streamer was subjected to the same treatment, would they have been able to overturn the ban quickly without the support of a massive audience?

Ryan Higa expresses concern for smaller streamers over Twitch ban

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In a clip captured on Valkyrae's stream a few minutes after the ban, Ryan can be heard narrating the contents of the message he received from Twitch regarding the ban. Saying that he was banned for "hateful conduct," Twitch had banned his account for a while. After word got out that Ryan Higa had been banned on Twitch, his fanbase managed to get Twitch's attention and reversed the ban in record time.

Appreciate all the homies getting twitch's attention.. I'm unbanned! They sent me an email saying it was mistake on their end. So everything's all good now! Thank you guys <3

— Ryan Higa 🧢 (@TheRealRyanHiga) March 26, 2021

Hi Ryan, we here at Guinness have been alerted that you've achieved the world's fastest Twitch unban! We would appreciate you applying your timer and Vod proof to the link below! Thank you and have a nice day 😊https://t.co/VjALg3UNg6

— Masayoshi (@ItzMasayoshi) March 26, 2021

Sharing his thoughts and concerns regarding the ban, Ryan Higa had the following to say:

“It’s kinda scary for up-and-coming people who don’t have that connection. I think that’s very concerning for all of you that are trying to make Twitch your thing. I’m sure there are some of you here.”

The streamer echoed these sentiments on his Twitter account with the following tweet:

Was thinking the same thing tbh, I got lucky https://t.co/r1eSP8LXHP

— Ryan Higa 🧢 (@TheRealRyanHiga) March 26, 2021

Twitch has been notorious for dropping the ban hammer on users seemingly out of nowhere, with responses and reasons from the platform often being delayed or missing entirely. Hopefully, the wrongful ban of Ryan Higa spurs a re-evaluation of the ban process on Twitch, so as to prevent honest streamers from being wrongfully terminated from the platform in the future.