KEEMSTAR Gets Top Twitch Streamers Unbanned After Interscope Records “Accidentally” Copyright Striked for Music

Calum Patterson

A number of top Twitch streamers woke up on Friday June 22nd to discover their channels had been banned for 24 hours, after DMCA strikes were imposed for music playing during live streams.

Streamers included Felix “xQc” Lengyel, TSM’s Daequan, KittyPlays, Castro1021, pokelawls, Avxry and League of Legends player for Cloud 9 ‘Sneaky’ to name few.

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It became clear that these were strikes imposed for playing music on stream, with rumors claiming it was songs from the artist “JuiceWRLD”, although it is unclear exactly if the strikes were limited to this one artist or multiple.

Due to the ongoing Friday Fortnite tournament, host and organizer Daniel “KEEMSTAR” Keem was determined to have all participants unbanned and able to stream, and so took it upon himself to pursue the situation.

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Due to Daequan and Avxry both taking part in the Friday Fortnite tournament on June 22nd, KEEMSTAR posted on Twitter shortly before the start of the event saying he had spoken to record label Interscope.

KEEMSTAR explains that it was an automated system that had striked the channels, similarly to how it might strike a YouTube video or Soundcloud track that features copyrighted content.

JuiceWRLD is signed to Interscope, so it would make sense that he was one of the artists which had perhaps been picked up by the automated system.

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Although it is technically not permitted to play copyrighted music, or even cover copyrighted songs, without permission from the copyright holder on Twitch, it is a rule very rarely enforced.

Twitch has its own large library of music which is permitted to be played on stream, which you can find at music.twitch.tv/

KEEMSTAR however sent a direct message to Twitch, saying a direct line for appeals is needed, especially when large tournaments such as Friday Fortnite rely on Twitch streams.

As of now, it looks like all the streamers who were subject to a ban now have their channels reinstated, with some thanking KEEMSTAR directly for intervening.

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About The Author

Calum is Dexerto's Managing Editor, based in Scotland. Joining Dexerto in 2017, Calum has years of experience covering esports, gaming and online entertainment, and now leads the team to deliver the best coverage in these areas. An expert on all things Twitch and gaming influencers, he's also an expert in popular shooters like Apex Legends, CS2 and Call of Duty. You can contact Calum at calum.patterson@dexerto.com.