Twitch bans gay-themed game bundle Radiator 2

Radiator 2, a collection of three gay-themed titles that was recently released on Steam, has been banned from streaming site Twitch.

Creator Robert Yang is used to has creations being blocked by the video network, but has expressed his surprise that these relatively old titles have suddenly been hit following their appearance on Valve’s store.

I had thought I found a safe ground of ‘acceptable sexuality’ (an extremely dangerous concept in of itself) but with this move, they’ve now banned basically everything I’ve made. Now, nowhere is safe for me as a creator,” he stated on his blog.

What’s too gay for them, what’s too sexual for them? Why did they change their mind when I re-mastered my games and put them on Steam? I have no idea, and that’s the biggest problem: Twitch never says anything. No e-mail, no notification, no rationale, no reason, no pity tweet. Am I just supposed to keep refreshing the ban list page to see if they banned me, for every single game I make, forever?

This is humiliating and dehumanizing treatment, and I wish Twitch would stop it.”

The lack of transparency in the anti-sex banning process mirrors, Yang argues, similar approaches seen in other sectors such as banking. Also of irritation is the lack of consistency, with triple-A titles such as The Witcher 3 and South Park: The Stick of Truth remaining stream-friendly, while he is left without so much as an email explaining the reason behind the ban or suggesting what can be done to avoid future bans.

Twitch also lacks an appeals process

[Twitch’s] silence and inconsistency just gives me the distinct impression of not giving a shit, which would be fine if only they weren’t so important to the future of game culture,” Yang added.

If Twitch actually cares about games, it should invest time/people/resources into nurturing games as a mature creative culture, to protect whoever needs protection AS WELL AS protect creative diversity of expression at the same time. These goals are not mutually exclusive, and if any system cannot do this, then that system is broken and should be fixed.”