Battlestate Games Banned on Twitch Amidst Escape From Tarkov Twitch Event

Players across the globe have been enjoying the latest 0.13 patch update in Escape from Tarkov. As part of the holiday season and the start of the new wipe, Battlestate Games announced a Twitch Drops event. The Escape from Tarkov Twitch drops event began on 29th December and is scheduled to end on 8th January 2023. As part of this event, the publisher also announced a series of interesting events and broadcasts on the official Battlestate Games Twitch channel till 8th January. However, the channel has now been banned by Twitch for reportedly violating the platform’s community guidelines or Terms of Service. Additionally, the channel was made unavailable on 1st January.

Battlestate Games banned on Twitch

Upon navigating to the Battlestate Games’ official Twitch channel, you will see the following notification pop up on your screen: “This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.” If you are an avid Twitch user, you will know that Twitch never explicitly specifies what the channel violated. As usual, it is not very clear why the Escape from Tarkov developer has been banned on the platform amidst the ongoing Twitch event.

However, fans have been speculating about what could have triggered Battlestate Games’ suspension on the streaming platform. Some viewers recalled that the developers were aiming toy guns at each other during the stream and this could have caused the temporary ban. One Redditor commented, “There [are] tons of rumors that they were pointing airsoft/replica guns at each other… again.” Another user wrote, “Apparently alcohol and toy guns are a great way to break Twitch’s TOS [Terms of Service] lol. I didn’t see it happen but I’ve heard some streamers talk about it. Apparently, someone aimed a toy gun at another person on stream, broke ToS or something.”

Notably, as per Twitch’s Community Guidelines, this falls under “Targeted Harassment, Threats, and Violence Against Others.”

According to Twitch, the following are considered zero-tolerance harassment violations, and all accounts associated with such activity will receive an immediate indefinite suspension:

• Attempting or threatening to harm or kill another person

• Attempting or threatening to DDOS or SWAT another person

• Brandishing lethal or harmful weapons, such as guns, knives, or explosives

Another Redditor reasoned, “Twitch has always banned [channels] for brandishing firearms on stream, if the airsoft guns shown are indistinguishable from a real one there’s no way Twitch would know.”

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Battlestate Games has gotten banned on Twitch. In 2019, the publisher was issued a ban after a member of its broadcast imitated a suicidal act on stream.

While the official Battlestate Games stream is banned, you can still check out other streamers playing Escape from Tarkov to receive in-game rewards via the Twitch Drops event.