Deadmau5 gets banned from Twitch for using homophobic slur

We have to stop saying these words.

The DJ/streamer Deadmau5 was banned from Twitch for using a homophobic slur on Tuesday. In response to being banned for violating Twitch's rules against hate speech, the 38-year-old deleted his Twitch account, esports insider Rod Breslau reported.

Deadmau5, a.k.a. Joel Thomas Zimmerman, was playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds when his outburst happened, calling the player who killed him the F-word, among other things, resulting in his account being flagged for hate speech. Although the stream is now deleted, given the context of the situation it sounds like Twitch made the right decision to ban Deadmau5.

In a now-deleted Reddit post, Deadmau5 railed against Twitch for censoring him and criticized people who reported on his ban.

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Deadmu5 also appears to defend his use of the word as a "heat of the moment" kind of thing.

"While it was intended to insult a fuckin asshat who was being a fuckin asshat... it wasnt 'directed at an entire group of people who have a sexual orientation that differs from my own,'" he wrote. "Fuck off with that shit."

In other Reddit posts that are still up, Deadmau5 continued to complain about people who were offended by his use of the slur as well as news outlets for reporting on it.

Deadmau5 refers to "Twitch's double standard" in his deleted comment, which, while he doesn't specify exactly what that means, likely refers to Twitch's rules against showing skin on streams. Some more misogynistic corners of the Twitch community tend to think that Twitch doesn't punish enough women for violating this vague rule. This comparison is strange because that has nothing to do with his use of a hateful slur.

Deadmau5 can defend himself all he wants, but the fact remains that he said a word that incites feelings of hatred against a certain group of people. People like Deadmau5 try to explain that they don't mean to use slurs in hateful ways, but that is just stripping the word of its history and meaning in a desperate attempt to save face.

That slur is hate speech, no matter how you use it. It is associated with a group of people and to use it in a heated moment as a means to insult someone shows exactly what you think of that word and the people to which it refers.

You can't separate the two things. Just like when PewDiePie said the N-word on a stream in a heated moment last year, it's unacceptable to use these words in any context.

It doesn't matter if you're caught up in the moment, you're really angry, or you're just trying to make a shitty joke. Take these words out of your vocabulary.

And please, don't defend saying these words. Learn from your mistakes. Educate yourself. Take a moment to listen to the people who are hurt by what you say. Be better.