Deadmau5 has criticised video game streaming platform Twitch for “double standards” after receiving a ban for homophobic language.
The producer, whose real name is Joel Thomas Zimmerman, called a player who killed him while playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds a f****t. His account was flagged for hate speech as a result and he was suspended from the site.
Deadmau5 posted a response to the ban on Reddit in a now-deleted missive. “I’m not going to stand for twitch’s double standard when it comes to censoring and suspending me for harmless shit,” he wrote. “While we’ve had some fun partnerships here and there, and they were a great company to work with… I’m gunna have to cut this one short. I don’t have the capacity to deal with that kind of shit.”
He continued, seeming to defend his comments as “heat of the moment” remarks. “While it was intended to insult a fuckin asshat who was being a fucking asshat…. It wasn’t “directed at an entire group of people who have a sexual orientation that differs from my own” fuck off with that shit,” he said.
“The sane people who knew what it was in the heat of the moment knew the purpose of the statement, and the people that think otherwise, I’m better off not even fucking knowing and they can just keep way the fuck clear of me.”
He clarified in a later post that is still up that he wasn’t blaming Twitch for banning him. “I know what the fuck I said and why I said it and in what contextual universe it belonged in,” he said. “I just don’t agree with their policy on who gets to decide whats freedom of expression and whats blatant extreme right wing crazy shit that’s actually harmful. Coz whats the difference I guess.”
Recommended
NME have contacted Twitch for comment.
It was recently confirmed that Deadmau5 would headline this year’s Creamfields festival. Swedish House Mafia will join him at the top of the bill at the annual Cheshire dance event.