Famed speedrunner and Twitch streamer Narcissa Wright was informed today that she would be unbanned from streaming on popular platform Twitch, after a 22 day ban has expired. The news comes just a week after Wright temporarily lost her ability to stream due to her accidently viewing explicit material on stream, which led to her making threats and the subsequent 'permaban' after she tweeted that she wanted to  ‘kill myself and shoot people at Twitch HQ’ in a tweet, which has since been deleted.

Despite Twitter having banned and reported such threats in the past, Wright appears to have seen zero consequences on that platform, and will only be banned for 22 days on Twitch as a consequence of her actions. The initial ban was for showing indecent images on stream, with the then-permaban following after Wright made threats on social media, where she temporarily deactivated her own account.

Twitter state in their terms of service that anyone who violates their ‘violent conduct’ policy will be immediately and permanently banned, which runs at odds with the threats posted on Wright’s verified account, and Twitter’s inaction regarding them. Twitch also have rules regarding violent conduct and threats against other users, although these rules are often written in ways that leave a lot of room for interpretation.

Contrition was key

The incident is sure to raise eyebrows, and maybe even concerns among Twitch staff, with threats of violence normally treated far more seriously than they have been in this case. Twitch, in their message to Wright, claimed that her contrition was a contributing factor in the decision to once again allow her a platform on their site, something many viewers have called out as being somewhat inconsistent and even potentially dangerous to set as a precedent.

Wright herself attempted to claim in the wake of her ban that she didn’t mean the threat, and it was a ‘form of self-harm’, as well as tweeting references to ‘performative outrage’ which presumably relate to the reaction to her initial ban and tweet. Her ban should expire on March 13 if it does indeed last 22 days from the date of her initial suspension, or March 14 if it starts from the date of her threat and permaban.

Concerns are no doubt heightened partly due to previous incidents which have seen shooters enter other company properties to exact revenge for what they perceive as damage to their own careers. In 2018 38-year-old Nasim Najafi Aghdam shot and wounded three people at the YouTube HeadQuarters in San Bruno, California, before taking her own life.