Twitch bans streamers for simulated earlicking ASMR in yoga pants

(Image credit: Kaitlyn Siragusa)

A month ago, Twitch responded to the rise in popularity of hot tub streams by creating a new category for Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches. Since then, another trend has become a hit on Twitch: streamers simulating the sound of earlicking with ASMR microphones while wearing yoga pants. This oddly specific trend is all over Twitch's ASMR channel, and two of the streamers who were dominating it, Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa and Jenelle "Indiefoxx" Dagres, have been banned.

Amouranth was at the centre of the hot-tub streaming controversy when her streams were demonetized by Twitch and deemed "not advertiser friendly," though they were within Twitch's content guidelines. Twitch subsequently backpedaled when it created the dedicated channel for Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches, saying that, "being found to be sexy by others is not against our rules, and Twitch will not take enforcement action against women, or anyone on our service, for their perceived attractiveness."

Apparently something about the streams in which Amouranth and Indiefoxx licked ASMR microphones while wearing tight leggings was against those rules, and both were banned for an unspecified amount of time. Amouranth tweeted that the ban has been good for her OnlyFans, with "587 new subs on OF since the ban mere hour or two ago".

Meanwhile, their absence and the influx of streamers currently joining the ASMR channel has left Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches free to be ruled by the otters of the Marine Mammal Rescue channel, who are currently the category's most popular livestream.

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Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.