Politics streamer Destiny receives indefinite ban from Twitch

A politics-focused streamer called Destiny has been indefinitely banned from Twitch. A screenshot Destiny shared to his subreddit indicates that the ban can only be lifted on appeal, and that it was applied for "Promoting, encouraging, or facilitating the discrimination or denigration of a group of people based on their protected characteristics."

Twitch has not provided a definitive motivation for the ban beyond that, but Destiny said in a Reddit post that he believes it was imposed "because of my claims that transwomen shouldn't compete with ciswomen in women's athletics," due of the likelihood that they'll dominate in their fields. That belief, expressed earlier this month, attracted widespread criticism on social media.

Another potential cause, noted by Dot Esports, is a recent "debate" Destiny held with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes was banned from Twitch in 2019, and Twitch guidelines prohibit streaming with banned streamers. Destiny's stream with Fuentes was apparently only live on Twitch for a brief time, but still long enough to result in a policy violation. Fuentes was also recently implicated in an uptick of "hate raids" against women and LGBTQ+ streamers on Twitch.

This is not Destiny's first suspension from Twitch. He's been banned at least six times previously, in fact, and lost his Twitch partnership in 2020 for "encouraging violence" after he gave his "blessing" to "white redneck militia dudes mowing down dipshit protesters." That history may explain why this most recent suspension was made indefinite.

We initially reported that his suspension may have been related to this clip, in which Destiny muses about the gender affirmation surgery of a rival streamer and mentions the temptation of "41% jokes," a reference to the rate of suicide attempts reported by trans people in the United States in the 2012 National Transgender Discrimination Survey. That video was actually posted after the suspension, however: In it, he says he'll probably appeal his ban at some point in the future so he can take part in other people's streams. At the same time, it seems clear that he's unwilling to reconsider his position, which could make a successful appeal unlikely.

This isn't the first time Twitch has opted for an indefinite permanent ban against a high-profile streamer. Dr Disrespect was famously kicked off the platform and only settled his lawsuit with the site this month. While no party "admits to any wrongdoing," he will not be returning to the platform. Chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was unfortunately caught in the crossfire when he streamed himself analyzing Dr Disrespect's chess play and received a temporary ban.