Why was Adin Ross banned on Twitch while being swatted?

The entire situation was perplexing as hundreds of thousands of viewers watched Adin Ross’ Twitch channel as he streamed himself being swatted in his Los Angeles home.

Though no one appeared to be harmed as Ross and his friends followed the orders of the police, the stream cut off at a point and the channel was seemingly suspended.

After Ross and his friends walked outside of the stream camera’s sight, viewers could see the reflection of what appeared to be police in the streaming room’s windows and hear an occasional loud, firm voice identifying itself as a part of the LAPD.

But still, the stream ended and the channel was taken down, despite there being no indication that it had broken any terms of service or community guidelines. While Twitch’s community guidelines do address swatting, they do not set a standard for what a streamer should do with their stream once they realize that they have been swatted.

Instead, the guidelines state that the act of swatting is a violation of the platform’s guidelines, and they give preventative tips to creators as a means to help stop swatting before it happens.

So why did Adin get banned then?

It doesn’t appear that Ross broke any rules on his stream, but a source close to Twitch explained that in instances of swatting, the platform can, and will, pull the plug on channels as a protective measure for both the creator and their audience.

Swatting is a verb used to describe the act of calling the police on deceptive pretenses to get them to send a SWAT team to someone’s home. Typically, a caller will lie about a crisis situation at a person’s home, suggesting that someone is armed and people are in danger.

If the police take the call seriously, it often results in responders sweeping through the home to ensure the safety of everyone that is present. But, in the past, mishaps have resulted in people being shot and killed by police during such incidents.

For that reason, Twitch will take a channel down to ensure that nothing like that gets caught on stream. In a similar vein, taking down the stream prevents people’s personal information from getting leaked by police that might not know a broadcast is going on.

That could explain why Ross’ ban on Twitch was so short as well. His channel was reinstated on the platform after just 26 minutes and 49 seconds, according to StreamerBans. The source close to Twitch said that channels will typically be reinstated after a swatting incident once the situation is resolved.