Twitch has continued to bill subscribers of permanently banned channels. In an interview with Dexerto, one banned Twitch streamer revealed that they were still receiving payouts — without having any access to their channel.
Upon further investigation, Dexerto found several other streamers in the same situation. For instance, in 2022, Tempest took to X to tell his fans to cancel their subscriptions on the platform. “IDK how it’s even possible Twitch can ban me and still take 50% of revenue on a channel that they won’t unban, but it’s quite literally robbing people,” he wrote.
There were several other instances this year, as well. Streamers Intoxicated, xJappa, SokkzVR Gyreck Gaming, Hime, and Vyolent all took to X to ask Twitch why they were still charging for subscriptions on their permanned channels.
“I probably have about 10 people who are still subscribed,” xJappa told the outlet. “It’s stupid Twitch allows people to still auto-renew their subscription even though I’m banned on the platform.”
Streamers also took to Dexerto’s “user voice” page to highlight the issue. One wrote: “I think it is an absolute joke that you would collect a monthly sub fee from a suspended channel,”
This is all contrary to Twitch’s own Community Guidelines, which state that “if you are indefinitely suspended, you will not be able to utilize Twitch monetization tools during your suspension, and existing recurring subscriptions to your channel will not renew.”
Twitch Responds
When approached by Dexerto for comment, Twitch confirmed that subscriptions are meant to be cancelled on banned accounts.
“In line with Twitch policy, when a channel is deleted or is indefinitely suspended, subscriptions to that channel are not renewed,” the platform said in a statement. “The examples shared appear to be edge cases, and we’re working to quickly resolve those issues,
According to Twitch, in these “certain cases,” subscribers are meant to receive a refund. The platform also added that there’s a limited grace period for banned streamers. This period allows streamers to retain subscribers for a little while. After that, the subscriptions shouldn’t be renewed.
When it comes to subscriptions, Twitch takes 50% of the revenue. This means that, in these cases, the platform is making money from banned channels. Clearly, this is unfair to both creators and subscribers, and it doesn’t do much for the streamer’s reputation.
