Contentious Streamer IShowSpeed Unbanned From Twitch Despite Recent Controversies

It's been nearly two years since controversial streamer IShowSpeed (or "Speed" for short) was permanently banned from Twitch for telling influencer Ash Kash "no one could stop him" from breeding with her if they were the last two people on Earth — and in that time, Speed hasn't exactly been controversy-free.

In 2022, he notably set fireworks off in his home and nearly caught his house on fire, was arrested upon prank calling police after setting a PS4 on fire and then faced allegations of racism when a viral video of him interacting with a Chinese World Cup fan made the rounds online, among other things.

Most recently, he accidentally flashed the camera in the "IShowMeat" incident seen 'round YouTube. Despite all this, it appears Twitch is ready to let him back in, though nobody is 100 percent sure why.

Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that when visiting Speed's Twitch account, it says it's "currently offline" and not "currently unavailable," which is what it would read if the account wasn't active or banned. Speed has yet to stream again on the platform, nor comment on the decision.

The move comes after several high-profile streamers, such as Kai Cenat, have publicly advocated for the unbanning of Speed.

Cenat indicated that Twitch CEO Dan Clancy agreed that Speed should be unbanned.

It remains to be seen if Speed will return to Twitch after amassing over 20 million subscribers on YouTube. As of today, Speed has 239,000 subscribers on Twitch, roughly just 1 percent of his following on YouTube.