Whether it be uttering a racial slur, abusing animals live, or straight up cheating, Twitch and controversy go hand in hand. Yet, the latest blunder from Twitch streamer SavageBabyDoll takes things to new heights.
In a stream broadcast on Dec. 8, the Fortnite streamer proffered up one of the most egregious cases of money-grubbing disdain for viewers by asking her moderators to:
Can you ban every little poor person who can’t afford a sub?
The comment arose after a viewer questioned whether being a subscriber was a prerequisite to jumping into her custom Fortnite boxfight lobby.
It’s pretty standard fare for Twitch streamers to organize community games with their viewers. With no clear indication as to whether these were sub-only, the question was all too reasonable.
At the time of the broadcast, SavageBabyDoll’s sub count tallied up to a meager 57 subscribers, leaving pretty slim pickings for those eligible to play according to her comments.
SavageBabyDoll met the seemingly innocuous question with aloof contempt. Shortly after that, a wave of bans hit all non-subscribers watching the stream. The episode was saved for posterity by the viewer asking the fateful question .
https://twitter.com/gh0stty_/status/1203801516110278657
On top of this, it emerged that SavageBabyDolls requires viewers to follow her for a least a month before they are allowed to talk in chat . While it’s common for streamers to enable ‘follower-only chat’ when juggling larger viewer counts – if only to avoid chat descending into a fast scrolling free-for-all of nonsense – setting a time limit for eligibility is rare.
Since then, SavageBabyDoll’s social channels have gone quiet and past broadcasts suspiciously removed from her Twitch channel .
Under the community section of her YouTube channel, SavageBabyDoll addressed the incident with a meandering apology of sorts , fraught with unconvincing justifications for her actions.
The streamer explains;
The reason why i said “ban those poor people” or whatever he kept coming back on multiple accounts harassing me about not being a sub and how it was dumb being a sub it was only him and his friend or so making accounts BEFORE he clipped me saying that.
SavageBabyDoll continues:
I would never just ban people because they can’t afford a sub or etc. When the video got posted we had no idea it was everyone we still thought it was him and some friends so YES we did ban people a lot.
From the post, it’s clear SavageBabyDoll feels the whole affair is a misunderstanding, but when prompted to post the full video for context, she refused.
Whether a few rogue viewers prompted the streamer to respond as she did is unclear. Regardless, there are dozens of other ways to deal with trolls and pesky viewers.
As any streamer worth their salt will happily explain, subscriptions and donations are voluntary. Twitch remains at its core a free service.