Former Twitch Streamer Suing Company over Channel Removal

Zac Cameron,

February 20, 2018 12:45 AM

After having his channel banned in 2016, Phantoml0rd is back with his sights set on Twitch

Earlier this month, former Twitch.tv streamer James “Phantoml0rd” Varga filed a complaint with the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, citing that he is owed monetary damages from when his Twitch.tv channel was banned in 2016.

James
James "Phantoml0rd" Varga (twitter.com/PhantomL0rd)

In July of 2016, Twitch.tv changed their guidelines for streamers, stating that any content that breached the Terms of Service of companies whose games were used to stream, such as games developed by Valve, would now also be in breach of the Twitch.tv terms of service. These new guidelines now covered activities such as gambling using the Steam API, something which previously was not covered by the ToS.

According to the suit filed, Phantoml0rd claims that he was repeatedly told that his actions on his personal stream were within the ToS, and that any breaches of the ToS required Twitch.tv staff to notify him of the breach and allow him a grace period in which to correct the breach. Phantoml0rd argues that the failure of Twitch.tv staff to alert him to these changes and possible breaches of the ToS opens them up to liability due to monetary losses he suffered when his stream was banned.

One of Phantoml0rd's video promo pictures (twitter.com/PhantomL0rd)
One of Phantoml0rd's video promo pictures (twitter.com/PhantomL0rd)

Twitch.tv has yet to issue a statement on this topic as of yet, but the topic of video game gambling has only gained more attention in the time since Phantoml0rd was banned, especially in light of the recent controversy over in game “loot boxes”.

For more on when a pro player or streamer goes rogue, check out our articles about when Pro LoL players met the ban hammer, and the issues surrounding Overwatch Pro Player xQc. You can find the full suit filed by Phantoml0rd here.



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