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Leafy permanently banned on Twitch: Could Pokimane be the reason? Here's a look at old scandals and feuds

This news first came from Rod 'Slasher' Breslau, an industry insider via his personal Twitter account: 'Twitch has suspended Leafy's channel'

If you are looking for LeafyIsHere, let's get this straight: Leafy is not here anymore. Calvin Lee Vail — popular as Leafy or LeafyisHere — is a former YouTuber who is known for commentary, reaction clips, drama, and let's play videos. After joining the channel in 2011, he uploaded his first video in 2013 but starting from 2015, he was embroiled in several conflicts with other YouTubers. Reportedly, in 2016, YouTuber Ian Carter, known as iDubbbz, featured Leafy in an episode of his 'Content Cop' series with a string of accusations of cyberbullying.

Leafy's content is known to range from bizarre to offensive. Kotaku reports the YouTuber repeatedly violated the company’s harassment policies especially with a series of videos about Twitch star Imane “Pokimane” Anys — which kicked off a hashtag campaign around the existence of her supposed, secret boyfriend — as well as a feud with YouTuber Ethan “H3H3” Klein. Not just that, Leafy once likened himself to L from the anime Death Note, stating that he was close to snapping, as per a Shack News report.

This news first came from Rod “Slasher” Breslau, an industry insider via his personal Twitter account. "Twitch has suspended Leafy's channel. A Twitch spokesperson has sent me the following statement indicating it is for the safety of the community," he first tweeted. "Sources: Leafy has been permanently banned by Twitch," his next tweet read and collected over 1,000 retweets and 25,000 likes in no time. A Twitch spokesperson reached out to Slasher with a brief statement on Leafy’s ban. “The safety of our community is our top priority, and we reserve the right to suspend any account for conduct that violates our rules, or that we determine to be inappropriate, harmful, or puts our community at risk.”

According to Leafy, he wasn't alerted before his channel was banned. In a screenshot he shared, the email from Twitch lists the reasoning as “engaging in hateful conduct and threats of violence against a person or group of people.” He posted: "Wtf Bezos just when I started having fun @TwitchSupport - is there any appealing this, was my first offense bro lmfao," and added, "thought there would be a warning first or something I mean it was obvious I was pushing it but still was being somewhat mindful of tos."

The permanent ban sparked much fury on social media and many fellow Twitter users came to his defense. Keem posted a clip and condemned the fact that he was banned for "edgy comedy". YouTuber Steven Boogie2988 Williams said, "I do not like the kind of content leafy makes. BUT The decision by both YT and Twitch to deplatform him is worrisome and should be condemned. Let sarcastic edgy content exist. Meanwhile, they do nothing about the REAL manipulators and exploiter on their platform." One Twitter user also went on to post: "The fact that @Boogie2988 and @bunnydelphine have the best takes on the Leafy ban really shows how shit our community is now. Guys like idubbbz and h3 just take this in the ass in 2020. sad."

Speculating what could be the reason, many wondered if Pokimane's return had anything to do with the sudden ban. "Leafy banned on the same day that Pokimane returned!?" one tweet read. Another said, "Leafy got banned from twitch the same day Pokimane came back I have to laugh." One Twitter user said, "ofc u get banned the day pokimane came back lol," and another suggested: "You should stream on dlive."

Twitch usually does not reveal the reasons for suspensions and bans publically. Remember when streaming star Dr. Disrespect was permanently banned from Twitch? Well, to this day, no one has a clue why he was banned.