Streamer blasts Twitch for banning “sexualized” Spongebob emote

Scott Robertson

Twitch streamer ‘SHiFT’ hit back at the platform after one of his Spongebob Squarepants-themed emotes was removed because it “contained sexual content”.

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SHiFT is a professional Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom streamer. So naturally, he would have a lot of Spongebob-inspired emotes for his subscribers.

Unfortunately for him, one of those emotes was deemed too sexual by Twitch’s standards, and the streamer took to Twitter to express his displeasure.

“HAHAHHAHA TWITCH YOURE JOKING RIGHT?” he tweeted on September 15 after the platform classified the emote as ‘imagery of sexual content or nudity’.

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The emote in question is in reference to a classic episode of Spongebob, where he rips his pants on accident to great comedic effect, and then proceeds to repeat the joke over and over to less of a reaction each time. 

Twitter: @shiftpostingThe emote deemed too sexual by Twitch

SHiFT’s version features the phrase ‘RIP’ on Spongebob’s ripped pants, and is presumably used by chat whenever he dies in-game. 

While the platform banned the emote, no part of Spongebob’s rear end is exposed in the image.

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SHiFT followed up the screenshot with a fiery rant on the double standards of Twitch:

“Honestly Twitch get fucking real,” SHiFT said online. “When I go around and see horny boobie emotes everywhere on this site but I can’t have the iconic spongebob pants rip as an emote that’s how you know we’ve got top tier moderation and guidelines on this website.”

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The artist who made the emote for the streamer chipped in as well:

“I’m really hoping it doesn’t go to waste because blocking it for sexual content even though there’s nothing sexual about it at all is really disrespectful to the creators who busted their ass working on it.” they said.

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Twitch has been in action regarding its sexual content procedures recently, including handing out bans to popular streamers Bridgett and Amouranth. The same day SHiFT had his emote banned, another streamer called out Twitch’s double standards after getting a nudity warning for drawing hentai on an 18+ stream.

SHiFT has been streaming Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom since 2016, and holds records for speedrunning the game.

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About The Author

Scott is a former esports writer for Dexerto, who covered a variety of esports games including, CS:GO, Valorant and League of Legends.