Twitch suspends trans streamers Ian Alexander & Keffals for responding to trolls

Two major transgender Twitch streamers got suspended from the platform this week for responding to trolls.

After separate mass reporting hate raids, Twitch swooped in to ban non-binary Star Trek: Discovery star Ian Alexander and trans streamer Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti from their Just Chatting channels for violating speech guidelines.

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Twitch says the suspensions are temporary.

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Keffals was the first victim of the organized online assault.

“My account got mass reported before I even started [a stream] and I am banned from Twitch,” Keffals tweeted on July 18. She was showing past examples of the hateful abuse she receives when she was shut down mid-stream.

“I’ll do the stream on YouTube instead. You can’t f**king stop me.”

On Thursday, Keffals’ appeal was rejected.

“Twitch banned one of their biggest transgender streamers from their website for openly talking about the abuse they receive,” she wrote on Twitter. “I do not understand how they managed to fuck up so badly.”

twitch banned one of their biggest transgender streamers from their website for openly talking about the abuse they receive. i do not understand how they managed to fuck up so badly.

— keffals (@keffals) July 21, 2022

Two days later, Alexander suffered the same mass reporting assault and suspension.

Twitch “suspended my account,” the actor announced on Twitter July 20. “I was receiving racist and transphobic troll comments where they were saying slurs. I censored them, told the trolls to touch some grass, and then my account got suspended mid-stream.”

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“Touch grass,” for non-gamers, means “get outside” or “get a life.”

Twitch characterized the comment as  “violent hate speech.”