Last month, an Australian Fortnite player who streamed himself attacking his wife off-screen while his screaming children watched was charged with assault and banned from Amazon-owned Twitch. But after only two weeks, the service has restored Luke Munday’s account and is profiting from his newfound notoriety.
Twitch and Munday and Munday’s attorney didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
Munday, who goes by “MrDeadMoth” on Twitch, was a small-time streamer until the night of Dec. 9. That’s when his pregnant girlfriend, unhappy that he had missed dinner with his family, asked him to stop playing Fortnite and chatting with his Twitch fans.
Angered, Munday went off-screen, but kept the camera running. After Munday left the stream, a slapping sound could be heard on the video, while his girlfriend cried and their two children, both toddlers, were heard screaming.
There are three stages to how tech platforms keep their racist, sexist, criminal celebrities afloat in the face of criticism.
1. Smiling and promising to do better.
2. Smiling, teeth clenched, silently, like the creepy Fassbender robot from the new Alien movies.
3. Mask-off distinterest in criticism, trending toward open hostility.
Welcome to 2, Twitch! (YouTube’s been at 3 since the Pewd N-bomb.)
UPDATE: He’s been rebanned, reports The Verge.