Twitch re-bans streamer charged with assault after briefly letting him come back

Today, the Australian Fortnite streamer MrDeadMoth — otherwise known as Luke Munday, 26 — was banned again from Twitch for an indeterminate period of time, after an outcry from the gaming community. Just under a month ago, on the evening of December 9th, Munday was streaming to thousands of viewers of when he could be heard allegedly assaulting his partner. “How many times do I have to tell you?” he asked her, audio of the incident showed. His children’s cries can be heard in the background.

Munday was then charged with assault and banned from Twitch. But on December 30th, he posted a tweet advertising a new stream. As Dexerto reports, “[u]sers in his chat who referenced the December 9 incident were banned or timed out from chatting.” Twitch appears to have since taken down the MrDeadMoth channel.

When contacted by The Verge, Twitch declined to comment on how long Munday’s ban would last. They instead provided a statement:

Protecting the integrity of our community is incredibly important to us. We want everyone on Twitch to have a safe and positive experience and work constantly toward that goal. Part of that work includes examining our policies and practices when we find they don’t properly address specific incidents to ensure we’re adapting as the Twitch community grows.

Last February, Twitch changed its policies around harassment, enacting stricter rules around “hateful” behavior on and off the site and around sexually suggestive content. But because the company refuses to comment on account suspensions, it’s not clear why Twitch decided to allow Munday to return or why he was re-banned. Critics say Twitch’s silence on the issue makes it hard to take their commitment to community seriously.

This isn’t the first time Munday has been accused of a violent crime. In 2011, he was charged and convicted of “malicious damage” and “common assault,” according to news.com.au.

This article is from The Verge