Popular recording artist deadmau5 has been suspended from Twitch, a popular video game streaming service, for using homophobic slurs on his channel.
During his evening stream of "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" on February 10th, deadmau5 launched into a diatribe against a player who had killed him, calling him a “f****** c***-s**** stream sniper f**.” As clips of the outburst began to circulate, Twitch responded by suspending deadmau5's account for hate speech.
Deadmau5, who's real name is Joel Zimmerman, apparently responded to the suspension in a February 12th Reddit post that has since been deleted. The DJ began by accusing Twitch of censoring him and holding a double standard, and said he would no longer partner with the company. He went on to describe his outburst as "generally toxic as f***," but said he would not answer to accusations of homophobia.
"It wasn't 'directed at an entire group of people who have a sexual orientation that differs from my own,' f*** off with that s***," he allegedly wrote on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. The post received more than 100 upvotes before being deleted.
—Rod Breslau (@Slasher) February 13, 2019
deadmau5 said he was more upset at the player who killed him, and the online culture that spawned the situation. The DJ belives the opposing player was watching his stream at the time (a tactic many consider to be cheating) and intentionally killed him to provoke an outburst.
Deadmau5 had about 173,000 unique visitors to his Twitch stream in the last month and averages 418 viewers per stream, according to TwitchTracker. Millions of people are fans of deadmau5 music, with more than 3 million listeners each month on Spotify alone.
deadmau5 has been accused of homophobic and transphobic language in the past. The DJ took a hiatus from Twitter in October 2018 after his use of homophobic language sparked a pair of controversies.
—Goat lord (@deadmau5) October 8, 2018
Days after apologizing for using transphobic insults in a Twitter argument, he called a song by rival DJ Slushii "AIDS f******* s***" and "autistic" during a video game stream. After seeing the stream, Slushii revealed that he was in fact, autistic. The incident prompted deadmau5 to issue another apology and cede control of his Twitter account to a member of his press team.
—Goat lord (@deadmau5) October 11, 2018
In the October 2018 statement, deadmau5 acknowledged his own mental health issues and said he would seek professional help to improve himself.
The artist has a longstanding relationship with the video game industry and esports. In 2018 he performed at the official afterparty for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the largest video game trade show of the year. It's unclear if the artist will apologize for his latest outburst, or whether his Twitch suspension will have an impact on his career.
