Twitch streamer, Disguised Toast, has made a stand once again using his social platform by banning himself after streaming Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violated content to thousands of viewers. This comes after many popular streamers have started violating the DMCA laws in order to create new and easy content for their fans.

For weeks, Jeremy Wang, known on the internet as Disguised Toast, streamed popular anime shows illegally to his Twitch viewers without a word of his plan. Daily streams included content from “Naruto,” “Death Note” and a few other DMCA violated shows. After streaming the entire “Death Note” series, he was finally copyright claimed on the final episode. 

“See you in a month,” Wang wrote on his twitter after receiving the ban, sending his fanbase into an uproar. Viewers were outraged at his extended ban time, throwing hate to other streamers like Pokimane and Hasanabi for only being banned a few days. 

Just two days later, Wang began a stream on Twitch, causing another round of chaos in the Twitch community. If he was banned for a month, how was he back so soon? 

Wang then proceeded to boot up a streaming service and start a countdown to the final episode of “Death Note.” Fans were confused why he would get banned, only to do the same thing again, but got the answer shortly after: Wang was playing a poorly-made prank version of the anime rather than the real one. 

After this opening joke, he explained that he had planned the DMCA ban and showed the viewers texts between him and his artist roommate, LilyPichu. The texts showed Wang asking her to DMCA strike him after he played her song on stream, in order to make it seem like he got banned for watching anime.

This all comes after another popular streamer, Hasanabi, streamed Master Chef to his viewers publicly and illegally, beginning the wave of popular streamers violating DMCA guidelines. Wang had planned to stream anime and get banned quickly, making a stand against streamers using copyrighted content, but was disappointed when he never received a ban.

“I don’t think I should have gotten away with [showing] the entire series [on stream],” Wang told his viewers. He also told his fans that something was wrong with the DMCA system for him to get away with streaming the series for that long, and that he pulled this stunt to call attention to the problem with the Twitch copyright system. 

“If anyone asks though, I only did this for lazy content and clout,” Wang concluded his statement. This is another jab at the streaming community, where streamers are often blamed for only doing things to seek attention and to gain money through the easiest means possible.

Though it doesn’t seem that Wang’s stunt has any immediate effects, viewers and streamers alike hope to see change in the copyright strike system. Until then, I guess us broke college students will still be able to log into Twitch to get free TV services!