Twitch has a tendency to ban its streamers without offering up much of an explanation. 16 months later, we still don't know why Soulja Boy was banned twice in a single day. The first, very short ban was followed by a far longer one that has lasted for well over a year. Soulja Boy took to Twitter this week to announce the ban has finally been lifted, the air of mystery surrounding why exactly he was slapped with it in the first place remaining intact.
“Twitch Partner 'souljaboy' (@souljaboy) has been unbanned after one year, four months, and one week,” StreamerBans announced on Twitter with the rapper replying “I'm back” to make sure everyone knows he'll be streaming again. Despite not being allowed to stream for well over a year, Soulja Boy still boasts almost half a million followers on Twitch. Clearly his fans had faith that despite the lack of an explanation as to why he was banned, Soulja Boy would one day return.
Soulja Boy appeared to be as in the dark as the rest of us when it came to the reasoning behind his Twitch ban, threatening legal action against the platform. Reported by Sportskeeda, the streamer went on a rant in a series of now-deleted tweets outlining his plans to sue Twitch, even claiming the platform was racist for banning him. Soulja Boy issued an apology shortly after that, revealing he had spoken with Twitch but still didn't outline why he had been banned.
Whatever it was, the situation has clearly now been dealt with, or Twitch simply believes Soulja Boy has been banned for long enough that he can now be welcomed back. It might surprise some that Soulja Boy never popped up on Kick. The Twitch rival has been getting a lot of attention lately, and not all of it for the right reasons. The fledgling service has been accused of filling streams with bots to inflate its numbers, and its founder continues to assure users it isn't losing money despite the generous cut of revenue it gives to streamers.
Soulja Boy has already been back streaming on Twitch since his ban was lifted and so far, so good. We may never know what he was banned for, and he certainly wouldn't be the only one to fall under that umbrella should that be the case. Almost three years have passed since Dr Disrespect was mysteriously banned from Twitch. The popular streamer remains banned to this day and it seems unlikely he will ever have his ban lifted like Soulja Boy.