This is Niche Culture. In this column, we regularly cover anime, geek culture, and things related to video games. Please leave feedback and let us know if there’s something you want us to cover!
Twitch art streamer and cosplayer Quqco has been suspended from Twitch due to “sharing or engaging in sexually suggestive content or activities”- despite wearing a moderate Chun-Li cosplay and (by her account) not performing any lurid or suggestive acts.
Quqco reavealed this on September 15th via Twitter. “I just got banned again for wearing a Chun Li cosplay. I am fully covered. I don’t understand @TwitchSupport @twitch how is this sexually suggestive content?”
At this time, we cannot see her costume below the waist. Speaking to Kotaku, Quqco mentions the costume has a thigh-high slit, and that she “actually bought one size up to ensure that the slit wasn’t too high, the slit of this dress is cut lower than some runner shorts I own.”
The video of the stream has now been removed from Twitch, leaving only Quqco’s word, and the tweet of her cosplay that does not show the aforementioned slit. However, we have discovered an image of the alleged live-stream, where she appears not to be wearing underwear.
Quqco has been suspended from Twitch before (in August of this year) for a cosplay of Mai Shiranui. The character’s costume features a cleavage exposing top, and prominent slits- making it seem like she is not wearing underwear. When Quqco allegedly bent over to reach something out of shot, her underwear was reportedly partially revealed (all clips and videos on Quqco’s channel are inaccessible at this time). She then allegedly said “There, now you can see I’m wearing underwear.”
In a now deleted alleged tweet, she stated she believed the ban was due to “brigading” (co-ordinated attempts to ban or promote user-submitted content artificially) from LiveStreamFails (a website dedicated to cataloging fails and inappropriate behavior by streamers). This was in alleged retaliation after several members of the group had been banned from Twitch after allegedly sexually harassing her.
Regarding her current suspension, a moderator for LiveStreamFails spoke to Kotaku. “Considering the thread [on the subReddit] was submitted after her ban by Twitch it’s pretty hard to argue that it’s the result of a LSF brigade.”
Quqco has also defended other streamers who were suspended for low cut-tops.
“I’m SO angry right now. When I got banned, I was showered with over thousands of sexual harassing comments, constant bullying, and media attention to paint me as a slut or whore: YT Videos, Articles in different languages, reddit threads.I kept quiet and took it.
But seeing all these ladies getting banned left and right for wearing comfy sports clothes or for wearing a SHIRT and getting harassed, spammed, trolled, threatened, and LORDED OVER by these keyboard warriors. I’m just SO angry at this injustice
How is it OK for women to have to take this abuse because a bunch of trolls want to mass report? How is OK for trolls to continuously come at us and we can’t do anything but TAKE the beating? Get enough mass reports and we automatically must be banned.”
This is one of many alleged incidents eroding at trust in Twitch’s moderation team, due to a lack of consistency. This comes from claims that some female streamers will be in blatant violation of Twitch’s terms of service (dressing and acting in a sexually provocative manner), yet suffer no penalties. The reasons for this differs from person to person. Some claim that since Twitch makes a cut of all donations, streamers that receive a large amount of donations are given more leeway. Others claim some Twitch mods are infatuated with these streamers.
Other incidents include streamer Alinity, who on stream had performed numerous instances of animal abuse– including throwing her cat across the room, spitting vodka into its mouth, and kicking her dog. Alinty’s Twitch channel is still active as of this article, though she had been temporarily banned prior for being tricked into showing pornography on stream.
