Lauren Southern has been banned on Twitch over one of her stream titles, explaining the reason behind her ban on September 20.
Lauren Southern hasn’t been one to shy away from controversy in the past, a political activist and YouTuber who regularly shares her views to her 600,000 YouTube subscribers and counting.
She’s also a bestselling author and filmmaker, with her book “Barbarians: How The Baby Boomers, Immigration, and Islam Screwed my Generation” releasing in December 2016. Her latest effort, “The ABC’s of Morality,” was created to “combat the woke takeover of children’s literature with wholesomeness instead.”
Looking to build out her online presence, Southern has also taken to Twitch to stream occasionally, but during a debate panel on the platform, her account was banned.
While the ban is only temporary, Southern explained what exactly had happened, clearly a bit confused as to their reasoning.
“Well. I just got banned off Twitch. Lol,” she wrote in her initial tweet, though no explanation had been provided up to that point.
Around an hour later, she provided an update on the situation. “So looks like it’s a temporary suspension for ‘hate speech,’” she said. “I was invited on a panel discussing whether Transgenderism is a mental illness, and I just put the panel discussion topic in the title of my video.”
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So looks like it's a temporary suspension for "hate speech" – I was invited on a panel discussing whether Transgenderism is a mental illness, and I just put the panel discussion topic in the title of my video lmao.
— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) September 20, 2021
This topic of discussion was incredibly divisive, facing some backlash from the Twitch community.
With a large trans community on the platform, there was criticism to the panel Southern was featured on. As one user explained, “hosting open hate speech about me and a large part of my viewer base is really not something I’m finding encouraging.”
at a time where trans people on the platform are being targeted with hate speech facilitated by thousands of bots, @Twitch is allowing ppl to debate the legitimacy of our existence. i don’t think they can just have @TwitchSupport “we’re working on it!” this away anymore.
— Berry 🖤🍓🍰 (@bloodberry_tart) September 20, 2021
Lauren confirmed that the suspension is a temporary one, though how long she’s restricted from broadcasting on Twitch remains to be seen.
With the date of her suspension arriving on the same day as the Canadian federal election, there’s no doubt Southern had other things on her mind — but we expect to see her back debating on Twitch before long.
