My nutcase mega-tism theory is this was a strategic move to distract from the allegations against Hassan. If that Vio chick can substantiate even 10% of what she alleged to have happened, Twitch is in seriously deep shit given she's alleging systemic violations of privacy and confidentiality, atop the sexual abuse and power abuse shit. That right there opens the doors to legal hell for Twitch, and a volcano of fuck on the PR front, all of which would be horrendously costly to fix even for an Amazon subsidy. Amazon doesn't fuck around when it comes to its fiscal bottom line, and they'd be more likely to go scorched earth on Twitch's staff and then some.
And if Hassan and his buddies go, so do the special protections for the Twitch thots. The thots may not have million-plus sub counts like the biggest streamers, but on the other hand they bring in enough bacon for Twitch that to enforce the rules would mean a monstrous hit to Twitch's revenue. And they go where they should have been all along -- camwhore sites -- taking their traffic and ad revenue with them, another big hit to Twitch's bottom line.
Remember what I said about Amazon not fucking around with its fiscal bottom line? that would be enough to get suits in Seattle asking some really uncomfortable questions about exactly what it is that goes on behind closed doors at one of their subsidies, let alone in the post-SESTA/FOSTA, post-COPPA ruling, internet content regulatory landscape. Not too many ways for a PR department even powerful as Amazon's can polish a turd that turtle heads with "legal minors can watch topless streamers".
So, enter our favorite streaming Richard Petty lookalike. He's already on multiple politically expedient shit lists, and does shady and edgelord shit that skirts if not runs afoul of the TOS all the time. Building a case he has violated TOS enough to constitute material breach of contract would be trivial for a legal team with the combined might of a trillion-dollar megacorp behind it. That's a trigger Twitch could pull at literally any time they wanted, so why now?
Even if ol' Herschel here fought it in civil court and by some miracle won, his payday would still be less than what Twitch stands to lose from having to deal with fallout from the Hassan shit. Meanwhile, this becomes the gaming news story of the week, and Hassan's allegations get quickly, quietly, and conveniently memory holed.
