Who is Pokimane? Streamer banned from Twitch for streaming 'Avatar' series
Twitch streamer Imane 'Pokimane' Anys inadvertently found herself at the center of a major copyright infringement scandal after her account was suspended by the platform. Pokimane, who is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, had her account suspended on January 7, 2022, causing a major uproar on social media. Her account was taken down reportedly because she was streaming 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' to her over 8.5 million followers.
Twitch is notorious for its bans and has left many streamers and their fans furious over the past several years. In April 2021, Kai Cenat inspired the 'Free Kai' campaign on Twitter and Facebook after he was suspended. Weeks later, he was banned for a second time reportedly for using hateful slurs. The next month, streamer Adin Ross was booted for a third time, allegedly for engaging in sexual activity with an NPC.
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In most cases, Twitch doesn't spell out exactly what caused a streamer to be banned from its service, but it doesn't take much effort to find out why Pokimane was booted. She appears to have jumped on the latest trend of 'TV meta', where streamers provide live commentary or reactions while watching a film or TV show. While it may be quite popular with viewers, it appears companies aren't too happy.
Who is Pokimane?
The Moroccan-Canadian internet personality first drew widespread attention for her Twitch streams of 'League of Legends' and 'Fortnite', which she began in 2013. Within a year, she became of the 100 most followed accounts on the platform, a huge achievement given the lack of women in gaming at the time. In 2017, she was also named the Best Twitch Streamer at the Shorty Awards, which further propelled her to fame.
In the years since, Pokimane has evolved from just gameplay to fashion and beauty tutorials and was a founder of Offline TV, a comedic reality show about creators and streamers. She's also grown immensely popular on other platforms, racking up 6m followers on Instagram, and 3.7m on Twitter. In 2018, Twitch named Pokimane as one of their 15 ambassadors for TwitchCon, before later making her a partner for its Creator Camp. In fact, she's become so popular on the platform, in 2020 she signed a multi-year exclusivity deal with Twitch.
Today, Pokimane is well known for her forays outside of Twitch. In October 2020, she joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a game of 'Among Us', which the Congresswoman used as an event to get people to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election. In 2021, she also made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the gaming category. She also serves as the creative director for clothing brand Cloak and has also established a scholarship for students in UC Irvine's esports program. Pokimane also made a small cameo in the 2021 Ryan Reynolds comedy 'Free Guy', and in the music video of Bella Poarch's song 'Inferno'.
So naturally, when her account was deactivated, it quickly went viral. Polygon reported that it was because of her steaming of 'Avatar', and that her account is likely to get reinstated shortly because it was her first "strike". Twitch offers creators three strikes before making their ban permanent. She hasn't commented on the ban or even confirmed it so it's unclear for now if it really was the 'Avatar' stream, or something else. But knowing how picky some companies can be about their content, don't be surprised if it was indeed because of a DMCA complaint.