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Twitter fixes bug banning accounts just for tweeting the word Memphis Unsplash/FlickrTwitter has issued a fix for a bizarre bug that was banning accounts that tweeted the word ‘Memphis’, with all affected users now seeing their accounts restored. On March 14, several hours after this highly unusual glitch flared up, Twitter issued a statement confirming that a fix had been put in place which should stop accounts from getting banned just for tweeting the word ‘memphis.’ “A number of accounts that tweeted the world ‘Memphis’ were temporarily limited due to a bug,” the social platform wrote. “It’s been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. We’re sorry this happened.” A number of accounts that Tweeted the word “Memphis” were temporarily limited due to a bug. It’s been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. We’re sorry this happened. — Support (@Support) March 14, 2021 The bug cropped up on March 14, as many European football fans used the example of Memphis Depay – the Dutch striker for Lyon in Ligue 1 – tweeting things like ‘What is Depay’s first name?’ Others expanded it, asking for the name of the city, Memphis, in an attempt to bamboozle people further and expand the joke. Hey, @Twitter – can we talk about him yet? 😄 pic.twitter.com/nVn3nY9zBb — Olympique Lyonnais 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@OL_English) March 14, 2021 As a result, anyone who replied with ‘memphis’ in lowercase, rather than ‘Memphis’ or even ‘MEMPHIS’ would see their tweet quickly deleted for violating Twitter rules, as strange as that may be. Multiple users confirmed that they’d landed a 12-hour suspension from Twitter for tweeting the term. In the suspension notice, Twitter stated that tweets using the word are “violating our rules against posting private information.” This type of restriction is typically reserved for doxxing someone, strangely enough. https://twitter.com/danmc7373/status/1371120356040269826 While this has now all been resolved, Twitter did not go into specifics about what exactly led to this sort of bug taking hold of their platform for pretty much a whole day. Either way, despite this announcement, we’d recommend users continue to be cautious with tweeting, in the off chance that the bug returns again.

Elon Musk reveals Twitter Blue relaunch date after verification mishaps Twitter / PixabayElon Musk has pushed back the relaunch date for Twitter Blue following a series of mishaps stemming from the $7.99 subscription service’s verification system. Twitter has been in a whirlwind of news since Elon Musk sought to purchase the company for $44 billion back in April 2022. Now that Musk’s deal has officially gone through, it seems the business magnate is keen to implement his previously proposed ideas now that he’s in charge. The first of those new ideas has been implemented, with Twitter updating its iOS app to add new features to the Twitter Blue subscription. Notably, subscribers will now receive a blue Verification Badge by paying $7.99. Twitter Blue subscribers will receive Verification Badges On November 5, 2022, Twitter updated its iOS app with some “great new features to Twitter Blue” and teased there was “more on the way soon.” The update increased Twitter Blue’s subscription price from $4.99 to $7.99. Additionally, anyone who subscribes to Twitter Blue will receive a Verification Badge “just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.” Musk has claimed he would change the verification process for some time now, with previous rumors suggesting that he would charge verified accounts $19.99 to keep their badge. However, while the iOS update has gone live for iPhone users, the new Twitter Blue subscription service isn’t live just yet – and Musk has pushed back the official launch date until the end of the month. On November 15, Musk revealed that the platform will officially relaunch Twitter Blue on November 29 to iron out any more problems. However, that date didn’t quite stick. For the time being, there’s now no current ETA on when Twitter Blue’s full rollout will land. That’s not all; additionally, Musk also stated that any changes to an account’s verified name will “cause loss of checkmark until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet Terms of Service.” Twitter’s product manager, Esther Crawford, opened up about the eventual release of Twitter Blue on November 5, noting that “some folks may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time” and confirmed the new service would be “coming soon.” Before this new service was officially confirmed by Twitter itself, users across the platform voiced their concern about the decision to allow anyone a Verification Badge. The hashtag RatVerified trended on Twitter on November 3, 2022, where users protested the change by adding the rat emoji next to their names instead of a Verification Badge. A slew of influencers have also expressed some concerns with Twitter’s new verification system, citing issues with non-mutuals their verified tab, as well as what it means to buy verification after earning it prior to the Twitter Blue subscription system. Now that the change has officially gone through and Twitter Blue will allow anyone to display a Verification Badge, only time will tell how this new service will change the future of the platform.

Twitter backtracks on social media promotion ban after Elon Musk poll Unsplash: Brett JordanTwitter has backtracked on yet another new policy after Elon Musk’s takeover. The platform attempted to push through a ban on promoting other social media platforms, targeting users who made it their primary activity. They backed down within 12 hours. Twitter and Elon Musk are once again making headlines for policy decisions. With Twitter Blue’s rushed verification implementation and removal, then the cutting down of popular features like Moments, Musk has tried to transform the social media site in just a couple of months. Yet another ruling on December 18, regarding the promotion of other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram on Twitter, turned heads for the wrong reasons. The platform announced it would “remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post.” It also promised to crack down on users who would use third-party linking services like Linktr.ee to get around the ban. “Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended. Additionally, any attempts to bypass restrictions on external links to the above prohibited social media platforms… is in violation of this policy.” However, after the move was widely criticized by the majority of users, Twitter reversed the policy and returned to the status quo within 12 hours. Musk himself put out a poll just after the policy changes were made, calling his leadership into question: “Should I step down as head of Twitter?” The poll, with 10.5 million votes at the time of publishing, is currently 56% in favor of the Twitter CEO leaving his post. This was backed up by another poll, made by Twitter Safety, after reversing their decision. This time they wanted the community to chime in: “Should we have a policy preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms?” At the time of publishing, that poll has received 90,000 votes, with 84% of users voting for the rules remaining the same and not banning the promotion of other social media platforms on Twitter.

Twitter bans albert12798 meme account and nobody knows why Twitter / Unsplash, Setyaki IrhamThe famous meme account ‘Albert’ has been banned on Twitter, causing such a stir among its fans that the entire situation has trended online, with no one knowing the cause of its suspension. Albert is somewhat of a household name among Twitter users, with the account best known for its snarky memes and famously “ratio’ing” others’ posts. Despite garnering over 554,000 followers on the social media platform, Albert mysteriously disappeared from Twitter on January 11, having been quietly banned. With no one knowing the reason for the oddly-timed suspension, the situation began trending almost instantly, revealing a wealth of hilarious reactions from fans and haters, alike. https://twitter.com/RenaldTheGod/status/1348707148042301441?s=20 https://twitter.com/harshalutd/status/1348702422953316352?s=20 great now that Albert is suspended can we PLEASE stop this whole ratio BS it’s so annoying, placing a goddamn whoopie cushion on a chair and having someone sit in it has greater comedic value, at least that has some semblance of a punchline — npesta (@zNpesta__) January 11, 2021 In fact, it seems like many critics are celebrating the development, with some claiming that Albert’s infamous “ratio’ing” of tweets was somewhat “annoying” and even negative. Some even believe that this may have been the reason behind his ban. While there’s still no official word as to why the account has been banned, the message fans receive upon clicking on to his profile states that “Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.” More interestingly, the account was only created in September 2020 — making its half-million follower count quite the impressive feat for a nearly four-month timeline. That’s not all; Albert nearly got sponsored by Luminosity Gaming in December, after the meme account managed to score 100,000 likes in a humorous challenge set out by the org, successfully “ratio’ing” one of esports biggest groups with the simple reply: “That’s easy.” Welcome the CEO of Ratio to LG @albert12798 pic.twitter.com/9qD8BpoJU3 — Luminosity Gaming (@Luminosity) December 22, 2020 The most mysterious part about Albert’s untimely Twitter ban is that fans have never once seen or even heard the mastermind behind the account. Luminosity attempted to orchestrate his voice reveal for a proposed Among Us game last year, but the event never panned out. Perhaps that’s what makes the entire development so curious — the mystery behind Albert may never be solved at this rate, and there’s no telling how long the meme account may be banned, or if it’s even a permanent suspension. What’s your take on Albert’s sudden ban from Twitter? Let us know on Twitter @DexertoTrending and stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.

Twitter adds new dislike button but with a catch TwitterTwitter has slowly rolled out a dislike button for some users, with the caveat that the number of downvotes the post has is invisible. Twitter has added many crucial features since its release all the way back in 2006 such as pinned tweets, Twitter highlights, and a native GIF search all in-app. The social media giant is now rolling out a new feature that allows users to downvote tweets they don’t like. Twitter’s new downvote feature On October 12, a select few users on Twitter began noticing a new feature that allows them to downvote replies. The feature came with a disclaimer box that said, “We’re testing downvoting on replies. This isn’t public for visible to the author – it will help us understand what people think is valuable to the conversation.” why did twitter think that this was a better idea than editing ur tweets🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/9Zoi2gxy97 — Spooky Breaker🎃 (@BreakerFNM) October 12, 2021 For now, it seems that Twitter is only allowing downvotes to be tested on replies and not the original tweets, and keeping the stats away from public view. One user commented about the changes and said, “Oh wonderful, we’ll turn into Reddit, where the echo chamber reigns supreme. Twitter is bad about group think too, but this will just make it worse.” ….downvoting? This is Twitter, not Reddit… pic.twitter.com/LWvMfZAWtt — 💙Demon Beast 5FT💙pinned (@imonly5feet) October 12, 2021 It is unclear if the feature will ever come to non-reply tweets, but the new change certainly has users wondering if Twitter will slowly become Reddit if downvoting becomes a permanent feature. The difference of course being that users won’t be able to see how many downvotes a reply has.

Twitter announces new rules to clamp down on ‘Copypasta’ tweets Twitter/Pexels: @grizzlybearTwitter has announced new rules that will reduce tweet visibility for users posting ‘copypasta’ tweets, also known as duplicate content. Over the last few months, Twitter has gone through a slurry of changes in both potential ownership and features as they’ve recently announced the long-awaited edit button. Now the social media platform has released new rules regarding duplicate ‘copypasta’ content, explaining that they will limit tweet visibility for offenders. Here’s everything we know about the new rules, including what will be considered violations as well as how to report offenders. What is Copypasta? On Twitter, copypasta — also known as duplicate content — can consist of a block of text or an image, but is more widely considered to be any combination of content that is duplicated by any means across the platform. Copypasta’s have gained popularity over the years after the subreddit was made in 2009. Various memes have spread since then, including phrases like “I Herd U Liek Mudkips,” and “How Is Babby Formed?” In the blog, the company gave a brief explanation of why copypasta content can be bad for the platform. “While copypasta or duplicate content is a tactic for propagating a message, and is used for a wide range of purposes, it can be repetitive, spammy, and disruptive to people’s experience on Twitter,” the site explained. “Duplicative content can also be used to artificially amplify content, suppress information, or manipulate Twitter’s Trends, Top Search results, and conversations across the platform. ” How can I tell if my tweets have limited visibility? The company revealed four ways to tell whether or not your content has been flagged and therefore not as visible to other users. making tweets ineligible for amplification in Top Search results and on Trends – not recommending tweets in timelines of users who don’t follow the Tweet author – downranking tweets in replies – excluding tweets and/or accounts in email or in-product recommendations. – If you experience any of these issues and feel it was done in error, you can contact support to appeal the decision. Examples of offending and safe Twitter content There are two examples of offending content that would make Twitter limit the visibility of a user’s tweets or account. Identical or near-identical content tweeted by an individual or many accounts, even if those involved are using the same account. – Tweets that may disrupt the experience of others, including mentioning users or using hashtags with the same tweet content – The company also provided examples of ways users can share content but stay safe from limited visibility. Retweeting existing content using the Retweet feature – copy-pasting, or tweeting existing content, combined with your own unique content, commentary, or reaction, or explicitly quoting the copied content – What is considered a severe violation? Alongside the list of offending and safe content, Twitter also revealed what would be severe violations of the new policy. These may result in tweet removal or permanent suspension. using automation or scripting to post duplicative content – operating one or multiple accounts where the majority of the content promotes duplicative content resulting in spammy, inauthentic engagement – repeated participation in copypasta, and duplicate tweet efforts to promote content that is in violation of other Twitter Rules. – At the time of writing, it’s unclear how Twitter will put these new policies into effect. When they do, however, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Twitch’s streamer’s subathon & Team Liquid signing ruined by emergency surgery Twitch/cdewxNew Team Liquid star and Twitch streamer Cdew had his subathon cut short and celebratory day ruined after needing urgent surgery. Cdew was in the midst of a huge subathon, in which fellow Twitch sensation Trainwreck added plenty of days to with a gigantic $7,500 donation. While things were looking bright for the streamer, things got even better when he revealed he was joining Team Liquid’s new arena battle team for World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, the streamer’s broadcast began to go horribly awry when he began feeling stomach pain so severe it forced him to rush to the emergency room at the hospital. THERE IT IS BOYS! SO UNBELIVEABLY STOKED TO JOIN SUCH AN INCREDIBLE ORG. LET’S GET ANOTHER ONE @TrilltkoWW @samiyamwow @mes_wow https://t.co/jMj0t853BV — Liquid Cdew (@cdew_wow) January 24, 2022 Team Liquid streamer’s subathon wrecked by appendicitis After over three hours at the hospital waiting for a diagnosis, finally, Cdew was informed he had appendicitis and would require surgery. “Doc recommends surgery, but I have the option to tread with meds and it’s a 50/50 I end up back in the hospital. Surgery scares me though and I’m alone and don’t wanna do it. I don’t know what to do,” he explained. Decided to head to the ER, something’s not right with my stomach I’ve been in pain all day. I’ll figure out what to do with my subathon when I’m done here. If I need to turn off I’ll turn back on where I left off but if I’m ok I’ll just add some time that I’ve been afk — Liquid Cdew (@cdew_wow) January 25, 2022 Eventually, however, he decided to go ahead with getting it done, but not without voicing his displeasure over how everything turned out. Just found out I have appendicitis, but it’s not “that” bad. Doc recommends surgery but I have the option to tread with meds and it’s a 50/50 I end up back in the hospital. Surgery scares me tho and im alone and don’t wanna do it. Idk what to do 🙁 — Liquid Cdew (@cdew_wow) January 25, 2022 “Still can’t believe how long I waited to announce joining Team Liquid and my day gets spoiled by this. It really makes me sad,” he said. “I decided to do the surgery, gonna be lonely in the hospital before and after but it’s the right decision.” Luckily, his new team was right by his side with Team Liquid’s Guild replying, “You’re in our thoughts, wishing you a speedy recovery.” You’re in our thoughts, wishing you a speedy recovery. 💙 — Liquid Guild (@LiquidGuild) January 25, 2022 Hopefully, surgery goes well for the streamer and he can get back to playing WoW and continuing his subathon without having to deal with any more stomach pain.

Twitch’s “purple screen of death” is now occurring inside video games Twitter: Rod Breslau, @SlasherTwitch has come under fire for a new feature in embedded streams, which presents viewers with a pop-up asking them to watch content exclusively on their platform — but it’s not just a problem on websites, anymore. In late January, Twitch became the subject of the internet’s frustration after implementing a new change that has a huge affect on embedded live streams in other websites and services. When users attempt to watch an embedded broadcast, they are met with an unskippable 30-second pop-up, which features a message against a purple background that asks viewers to watch the content directly on Twitch. That’s not all, though; the message can also appear for those who are already on Twitch and are using ad blockers, making an ad-free experience rather difficult for those not interested in having their streams interrupted. The pop-up doesn’t go away after just 30 seconds, either. In fact, the message will reportedly reappear every fifteen minutes, potentially interrupting important moments in specific streams. Needless to say, the change has not been met positively by Twitch viewers — but it’s not just an issue in the internet, itself. It appears that this issue has also come up within video games, as found by esports insider Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau. Breslau noted that the PUBG Global Invitational has been affected by the “purple screen of death,” with the pop-up appearing over the livestreamed event within the PUBG client, itself. Twitch’s purple screen of death is now messing up stream embeds directly inside video games, as seen here in the PUBG client for the PUBG Global Invitational. probably not great for the user experience! pic.twitter.com/bNK0gAKQgd — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) February 5, 2021 Where one would normally see the gameplay being broadcast on the in-game big screen, instead, the purple message comes up — leading to a less-than-stellar esports viewing experience. Commenters also noted that other esports events are streaming via alternative services like Steam, thus bypassing this potential for Twitch’s latest feature to interrupt the broadcast. Good thing DPC for Dota 2 is streamed via Steam instead of Twitch or YouTube. pic.twitter.com/zegsQqXwnN — Xander (@Dav3Schneider) February 5, 2021 Even former employees of Twitch have spoken out against the purple pop-up — and while it still remains to be seen if this will become a permanent feature of the site, as Twitch has claimed it’s only a “temporary experiment,” the backlash surrounding its implementation is nothing to sneeze at.

Twitch’s new stream “Boost” feature raises concern for smaller channels TwitchTwitch is rolling out a new feature for eligible channels called “Boost this stream,” with the hopes of giving people an avenue to be featured on “highly visible parts” of the platform. However, there are concerns it’ll be damaging for the smaller streams trying to get noticed. The new Community Challenge requires viewers to pool their Channel Points to unlock the reward. Streamers will get notified once the challenge is available on their channel, then will relay that to their community to start chipping away at the progress bar. But there are concerns about its application. It’ll be on Twitch’s discretion for who gets to run the promotion as well as the target number to hit before a channel can be successfully Boosted. The only hard number guideline with ‘Boost this stream’ is the 2,000 point limit that each user can contribute per day. Since individual streamers don’t know what their Boost target will be, some suggest this will be an easy feature to exploit. A Boost places a stream in highly visible parts of Twitch so more people can discover awesome, up-and-coming streamers supported by their community. The Boost challenge isn’t always available, so be on the lookout for a notification in chat, or check the Channel Points Store! — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) December 2, 2020 “How is not going to be abused by larger streams with more viewers, and therefore a bigger pool?” one person wrote. “IMO channel points devoted for use with a Community Challenge should be weighted in value depending on viewership.” Twitch responded saying “the amount of Channel Points required to successfully boost a stream is scaled with the size and viewership of the channel,” though a clear metric of how the cap increases wasn’t made available. Another issue raised was the way Twitch would consider someone to be a ‘small streamer,’ seeing as they’ll be the likely candidates to receive the chance to get Boosted. or..OR…,you could maybe feature smaller streamers better by bumping them up the front page higher#SupportSmallStreamers pic.twitter.com/DBvOK5gEAO — Johnny Chase (@JohnnyLChase) December 2, 2020 Interesting update! But what happens when everyone claims this challenge at the same time in regards to the recommended channel spot? Also, this would probably make a lot of streamers want to remove other channel point rewards so more can contribute to this one instead? — Victor ☕️ (@AlsoaTV) December 2, 2020 So my viewers have to choose between helping my channel grow and using their channel points for fun? I get that it’s collaborative but this will put people off using it if they’re saving points for a big redemption, or if they want to use regular smaller redemptions. — Hollis the Satisfactory (@TheWizardHollis) December 2, 2020 If it’s going by viewer count, then small streamers can be anything from 2-10 average viewers to 100-2000 live watchers per session. If it’s going by follower count or subscriber count, then that has its own implications as well. But Boost is a wholly experimental feature that has a lot of variables still being workshopped. For example, in the FAQ, Twitch says that everything from what’s considered as a high visibility part of the site to who the feature is available as it rolls out could change. As the company gets this feature into more users’ hands, expect Twitch to make adjustments depending on how Boost gets received throughout December.

Twitch’s new harassment policy will prohibit certain emote combinations TwitchTwitch has unveiled its new policy on hateful content and will be placing some strict rules on harassment, and even what emote combinations are acceptable. The Amazon-owned streaming platform has come under fire in recent months with the multitude of DMCA issues and suspensions leaving streamers and fans confused whenever someone is banned. Furthermore, earlier in June, Twitch pledged to make the platform “safer” after a series of abuse allegations surfaced. Now, with the site cracking down on hateful content, it is taking new steps to make the platform better. In a December 9 blog post, Twitch revealed its new hateful conduct and harassment policy, which even took aim at emote combinations that could be offensive. We’re updating our Hateful Conduct and Harassment policy to clarify our expectations and make Twitch a safer and more inclusive place for everyone. Learn more before it goes into effect on January 22, 2021: https://t.co/tNALgheR9e pic.twitter.com/STyzuG0UFH — Twitch (@Twitch) December 9, 2020 “Emotes are an important part of how we communicate with one another on Twitch, but they can be used maliciously,” the site explained. “So emote combinations, even without additional text used in chat, will be held to this policy.” It’s unclear exactly what combinations they were referring to and didn’t provide any examples. In addition to malicious “emote combinations,” however, users are now banned from displaying the Confederate flag. “Given its historic and symbolic association with slavery and white supremacist groups in the US, displaying the Confederate flag is prohibited,” they added. Aside from emote combinations and the Confederate flag, Twitch also detailed its changes to what it considers harassment. “Several of the changes in this updated policy make certain aspects of our longstanding policy clearer and more explicit,” Twitch explained and cited several examples such as encouraging others to DDos someone or raid their social media channels. On the sexual harassment front, Twitch is also introducing some changes to combat it and gave it its own category with a low-tolerance policy. For instance, now, “repeatedly commenting on someone’s perceived attractiveness” is prohibited. As is making “lewd or explicit comments” about someone’s sexuality or appearance. According to Twitch, it’s making these changes now because people “continue to experience a disproportionate amount of harassment and abuse online.” The new policies reportedly took months of research with consultation from experts and the site’s controversial Safety Advisory Council. ADL commends today’s announcement from @Twitch to make the platform safer for its users. While this is a welcome move, we continue to urge the platform to provide proper transparency as to better gauge the effectiveness and enforcement of these updates. https://t.co/vyoAxgPBDb — ADL (@ADL) December 9, 2020 The ADL praised the changes. David L. Sifry, VP of ADL’s Center for Technology and Society issued a statement saying: “ADL appreciated the opportunity to provide input as part of Twitch’s update process, and we are encouraged by the company’s efforts to make its hate and harassment policies clearer and more comprehensive. By articulating how the company intends to address hate, harassment, and extremism on its platform, Twitch can provide a safer and more equitable environment for all users.” However, the ADL also urged Twitch to release data on hate and harassment on the platform, claiming Twitch is one of the few major social media platforms to not provide a transparency report. They are set to take effect on January 22, 2021, but only content created on or after that date will be evaluated under the guidelines.

Twitch’s new music deal might be the end of DMCA strikes for streamers TwitchAccording to a report by Billboard, Twitch and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) are close to signing a music licensing agreement that would put an end to the ongoing DMCA saga on the platform. In 2020 just about everyone sought entertainment online, in which we saw the immense growth of Twitch. With a lot more eyes on the platform, record labels began to catch up with online entertainment, with some beginning to realize that streamers were broadcasting licensed music in the background of their content. Twitch began to take some shots amid its boom in popularity. Record labels could pursue legal action be taken against the platform, as its streamers weren’t following the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. This meant that streamers were open to DMCA takedowns on content that featured licensed music, leading to many deleting classic VODs and wiping their channels clean of any potential mishaps. Though, going forward, things could set to change. As revealed by Billboard, Twitch and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) are close to putting pen to paper on an already agreed upon licensing agreement. The report reveals that the deal between Twitch and the NMPA could be announced as soon as the end of September according to a source in the publishing industry, but regurgitates that the deal is still to be signed, so nothing is binding just yet. A licensing agreement between Twitch and music labels has been in the works for years according to Billboard’s report, with Twitch frequently promising that a deal is coming soon “for almost years now.” If the licensing agreement is to go ahead, it could be a huge turning point for the platform, as streamers would no longer be constantly paranoid about strict DMCA guidelines. We could soon see the return of streamers listening to a variety of music, rather than hear the same non-copyright beats that we’ve heard echo across the platform in recent times.

Twitch’s new branded content guidelines could prove disastrous for esports CapcomTwitch’s new guidelines for branded content could have a disastrous impact on esports events, which largely rely on funds from advertisements to keep competitions afloat. On June 6, Twitch rolled out new guidelines for branded content on its platform that are scheduled to be implemented on July 1. These rules prevent a slew of advertisements from being streamed — any “burned in” audio, video, and display ads are now totally prohibited. That’s not all; the site also introduced a swath of commodities that cannot be advertised whatsoever, including medical devices, political content, adult-oriented products, and more. That being said, there are ways for streamers and events to advertise products and services, albeit in a very different way. Twitch’s new rules for branded content do say that streamers can have products in the background of a broadcast, place branded panels on a stream’s page, and include promotional links om their page, as well as openly discuss, endorse, or unbox products or services and play sponsored games. Twitch’s guidelines could spell disaster for esports events However, Twitch’s new rules could place severe restrictions on streamers and organizations hoping to raise money for personal profit or otherwise — and it might have seriously damaging effects on live streamed events of all kinds, including esports. Esports has a massive audience on Twitch. In fact, it’s the premier destination for most competitive gaming. As an example: Looking at Twitch’s Twitter profile, it’s rife with content for Street Fighter 6, a fighting game that thrives on tournaments both small and large that take place throughout the year. These tournaments are streamed on Twitch, and sometimes YouTube. Many tournaments rely heavily on revenue garnered from advertisements for things like arcade sticks, headphones, computers, and even sponsors like Chipotle to keep each event going year after year. What’s more, YouTube’s presense in the esports scene is ever growing, with the Call of Duty League reportedly signing an exclusivity deal with YouTube just hours before the backlash related to Twitch’s branding changes exploded. Now, it seems that these sorts of on-stream advertisements will be heavily limited — leading to some potentially serious financial consequences right as tournament season is about to begin. This doesn’t just affect fighting games, although we used the genre as an example. Any tournaments for any competitive video game events (League, CS:GO, etc) are now held hostage by Twitch’s new guidelines, leading to disastrous consequences that could bring about the death of broadcasted esports on the platform. As a result, many streamers have been quite vocal about their opinions on Twitch’s latest guidelines, with many calling for a boycott of the platform altogether while others consider leaving for sites like Kick and YouTube. putting aside the fact that almost every sponsor I’ve ever done has necessitated these things, how the fuck does ESL or any grass roots organization ever run a profitable tournament ever again???????? — TUCKER (@JERICHO) June 6, 2023 Twitch’s apology leaves guidelines unclear for esports tournaments Twitch has since apologized for the “language” of their most recent guidelines, claiming in a tweet thread that they “missed the mark with the policy language and will rewrite the guidelines to be clearer.” “We wanted to clarify our existing ads policy that was intended to prohibit third party ad networks from selling burned in video and display ads on Twitch, which is consistent with other services,” they wrote. Despite these reassurances, many streamers aren’t convinced the new guidelines will give them more freedom with advertisements and sponsored broadcasts, with more than a few still reeling from the site’s 50/50 subscriber pay split. Until these guidelines clarifications occur, the future is looking quite bleak for Twitch’s esports scene — a community it had built up to an unprecedented degree on its platform up until now.

Twitch’s new branded content guidelines could take money directly from charity Twitch/Unsplash: AxvilleTwitch has just announced branded content guidelines, and the changes could directly negatively impact charity streams — theoretically taking money from them directly. On June 6, 2023, Twitch sparked quite a bit of backlash after new branded content guidelines were revealed that limit the ways streamers can integrate sponsored ads into their streams. Asmongold almost immediately called for a boycott, while his organization OTK Network threatened to leave the platform if the new guidelines are put into place on July 1, 2023. Lawyer and Twitch streamer MyLawyerFriend made a post on the subject, explaining why the changes could negatively impact charity streams. Twitch’s new branded content guidelines impact charity as well When it comes to charity streaming, many that are popular in the Twitch community (St Jude Play Live, Ablegamers, Gamers Outreach) offer a brand kit to creators that offer commercials and graphics packages to place on your broadcast. These graphics help make it clear that you are raising money, as well to give streamers and viewers alike the ability to see how much has been raised towards the total goal. “Because many charities offer incentives for fundraising (swag boxes, t-shirts, or even the chance to earn rewards) these charity campaigns are considered Branded Content,” he explained. “The new Guidelines expressly prohibits content creators making use of these tools (commercials, banners, and graphics) and restricts the on-screen logos that content creators can utilize.” As pictured above, the popular fundraising platform Tiltify has several different options for overlay items that track your campaign progression that would now be against Twitch rules if you are receiving anything in return for doing the campaign. Unless you can somehow make them only take up 3% of the screen, that is. If Tiltify and the affected charities don’t introduce new overlay options for Twitch streamers, this may result in a lower amount of money raised across the board. None of the affected charities have commented regarding the recent changes, but we’ll be sure to update you if they do. In the meantime, head over to our entertainment section to check out more news.

Twitch’s IRL section has been split into 13 different categories Twitch have officially removed the IRL section from their popular streaming website, splitting it into 13 unique categories. In a statement posted on the Twitch blog, Senior Director of Product Tom Robertson confirmed that the IRL section was officially discontinued, as viewers who frequented the category found it difficult to find specific streamers around topics they enjoy. Instead, the platform has created a new system of directory for streamers named Tags. The IRL section has been broken up into smaller, more focused tags, that Robertson will “help viewers find streamers around things they love”. These new tags are; Science & Technology – Art – Sports and Fitness – Just Chatting – Talk Shows & Podcasts – Makers and Crafting – Tabletop RPG – Music & Performing Arts – Special Events – Food & Drink – Beauty & Body Art – Travel & Outdoors – ASMR – Tags have been introduced as a new way to identify streams in an attempt to make Twitch easier to use, and allow viewers greater search options to help identify what they would like to watch. Robertson states that Twitch are aware that these changes “impact streamers and their workflow”, but ensures that Twitch will continue to work with streamers and creators on the new system, saying; “Our plan is to continue to adapt these tools to ensure that Tags and Categories work for everyone on Twitch. If you have feedback for us, please let us know.” Tags are set by streamers in their Live Dashboard, and appear alongside the thumbnail, stream title and game any time a video or broadcast is seen on Twitch. Twitch also states that tags will be used to help tailor recommended streams on Twitch’s homepage. Twitch officially announced the changes to the platform back in August, with the new tag system officially going live on Thursday, September 27.

Twitch’s new Brand Safety Score could reveal why Dr Disrespect was banned Instagram: @drdisrespect / TwitchOn March 9, it was revealed that Twitch is set to unroll a new feature for advertisers called the ‘Brand Safety Score,’ which rates the “safety” of all streamers to determine what ads, if any, can be played on their channel — a tool that may unravel one of the platform’s biggest mysteries, to date. In summer 2020, the uber-popular streaming personality known as Dr Disrespect was hit with a sudden permanent ban from Twitch. As one of the platform’s most successful broadcasters, this news came as quite a shock to his fanbase, who were quick to ask for a reason behind his suspension. Unfortunately, this reason was carefully obscured and ultimately not divulged by either party. To this day, Twitch has avoided stating the cause of Doc’s ban, and even went so far as to say that “no” news on the subject would be revealed in response to a fan’s question during a recent broadcast. However, some users are speculating that the mystery behind Doc’s ban could be brought to light quite soon, thanks to Twitch’s new feature for advertisers. Champions Club, Twitch has not notified me on the specific reason behind their decision… Firm handshakes to all for the support during this difficult time. -Dr Disrespect — Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 28, 2020 Some Twitch users postulate that the ‘Brand Safety Score’ contains information that streamers might be able to request in areas like the EU and California, due to GDPR and CCPA. What this means is that, if such speculation proves true, Dr Disrespect may be able to request what information, if any, about his channel resulted in his permanent suspension from the platform. It’s important to note, though, that all of this is mere speculation, and has yet to be verified by Twitch itself. Twitch has stated that “User privacy is critical on Twitch, and, as we refine this process, we will not pursue plans that compromise that priority.” For now, fans are hopeful that the Doc will open up about the reason for his ban, although considering his past responses to the topic, this could also be equally unlikely. This is HUGE NEWS as this is User Data that users from the EU and California could ask to get because of GDRP and CCPA and Twitch is using this info for ads and bounties/sponsors purpose Ban reasons are in those informations so @drdisrespect could find out why he got banned. https://t.co/iOE5G00hzo— Saysera (@Saysera69) March 9, 2021 Twitch’s ‘Brand Safety Score’ grades streamers on such elements as their stream rating, chat behavior, their ban history, and even their relationship with Twitch as a platform. For now, it seems like Doc’s fans are still in the dark — and there’s no telling if any light will ever be shed on a puzzle that has flummoxed the entire internet for months.

Twitch’s biggest streamer is not xQc or Ninja anymore Twitch: xQcOW / NinjaFor roughly the past four years, it has been generally accepted that either xQc or Ninja were the ‘biggest’ or most popular streamers on Twitch. But, as of 2022, they’re no longer top dogs – instead, it’s a streamer many English-speaking viewers are not aware of: Auronplay. His move to Mixer notwithstanding, Ninja is often held up as the biggest streamer on Twitch, simply because his follower number is the largest, at a whopping 17 million. Most of this, however, was accrued during his peak of popularity in 2018, and it doesn’t equate to the most viewers four years on. If it’s not Ninja, then xQc is often dubbed the most popular streamer, because he’s consistently at the top of the ‘hours watched’ chart. However, while xQc is definitely number one for English-speaking streamers, this ‘hours watched’ figure is inflated because xQc simply streams more hours than almost any other broadcaster. Instead, a much better metric of judging the most popular streamer on Twitch is two-fold: average viewers and followers gained. And in both of these categories, Spanish streamer Auronplay comes out way on top. Auronplay is actually Twitch’s biggest streamer Although Auronplay has always been huge on Twitch, 2022 has seen him boom like never before, as the Spanish-speaking community on Twitch grows too. In the past 30 days, Auronplay has averaged 112,000 concurrent viewers – miles ahead of second-place Dream with 80,000 (who only streamed once for 3 hours). Averaging over 100,000 viewers on every stream is something no other streamer even comes close to. In followers, Auronplay has over 12 million, which is second behind Ninja’s 17 million. But, Auron has gained almost 400,000 new followers in the last 30 days, compared with Ninja’s 70,000. What about hours watched, you may ask? xQc, king of the ‘hours watched’ stat, netted 21.5 million – almost double Auronplay’s 11.3 million. But, xQc streamed 280 hours – well more than double Auronplay’s 101 hours. If Auronplay had streamed the same amount as xQc, his hours watched would blow it out of the water. The rise of Spanish-streams on Twitch Auronplay’s success is part of a wider boom in the popularity of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking streamers. He is joined by the likes of Ibai, El Rubius, TheGrefg, Juansguarnizo (Colombian), and Alanzoka (Brazilian) in the top 20 of all streamers by following. Read More: Livestream viewership records – Compare that to a few years ago, when only El Rubius featured in the top 20, and it’s clear to see that more and more English-speaking streamers are being moved down the rankings. While the US & Canada is still Twitch’s biggest market, there is a very real potential that in the coming years, non-English channels and viewers will usurp the overall popularity of their NA counterparts, and Auronplay is leading the charge.

Twitch’s CEO gets rejected by partnership program for lack of viewership Dan ClancyTwitch’s CEO Dan Clancy had his partnership program application denied on his own streaming platform for not getting enough viewers in his streams. This year’s TwitchCon 2023 kicked off on October 20, when thousands of fans and streamers headed to Las Vegas for the three-day event. Twitch’s CEO also attended the convention to announce various changes that were coming to the leading streaming platform. Most notably, streamers are being allowed to stream on multiple platforms. However, an announcement he perhaps didn’t expect to make amidst the event, was that he had been rejected by Twitch in his hopes of becoming a partnered streamer. Twitch CEO denied becoming partnered streamer Twitch’s CEO shared on his Twitter/X account he had been unaccepted by his own company to join their partnership program. “For anyone that got denied being a partner from Twitch don’t feel so bad. Just got my Partner application denied. Did not tell anyone I was applying,” Clancy admitted. He goes by the name djclancy on Twitch, as the screenshot details the email he received providing the reasons why. “Thank you for applying to the Partner Program. Completing the Path to Partner Achievement is a great milestone to reach, however we cannot offer you a Partnership at this time,” Twitch’s email stated. Interestingly, the reason given by the Partnerships team points towards his lack of viewership: “Your recent viewership has been fluctuating significantly, and we are looking for consistency rather than occasional spikes in viewership.” Despite his busy schedule as CEO, Clancy has also been known to stream when he can. His live streams have provided further updates and answered viewers’ questions about the broadcasting service. Aside from this, viewers have been left impressed by the Twitch CEO’s musical abilities with various instruments.

Twitch’s Art category overrun by explicit furry and anime content amid new rules Twitch/MarinaTwitch’s new sexual content guidelines have ushered in a tsunami of explicit furry and anime art, leaving the community on edge. Amid the new “topless” Twitch meta, the Amazon-owned platform shocked the streaming world by unveiling a revamp to its community guidelines, allowing nudity for “art” purposes. Now, “artistic nudity” is allowed on the site, as long as the streamer has the correct label for the content and it didn’t take long for creators to take advantage of the rule changes. In just hours, Twitch’s Art section was flooded with nude art and it’s absolutely wild to see while browsing the category. Nude art skyrockets on Twitch after new sexual content rules All across the Art category, streamers began drawing anime and furry content, using the new rules to create things that would have resulted in a ban under the old system. Countless topless anime characters and explicit anthropomorphic images can be seen just by browsing the category, making it difficult to find content that isn’t for mature audiences. What’s more, the content isn’t remotely blurred, leaving nudity plain to see even when browsing the category. Users on X were quite overwhelmed by the sudden change in rules with many voicing their concerns. “Twitch be doing anything but making it a gaming platform,” one user sarcastically remarked. “This is what happens when you don’t have a coherent set of principles guiding rule creation and instead reactively change the rules in response to singular cases/events to fit the desired outcome for that particular instance,” someone else criticized. xQc also took issue with the site’s ongoing gambling ban while deciding to allow nude content on the platform. So far, Twitch has yet to address the flood of new content, but be sure to keep it locked to Dexerto for all the latest in the streaming world.

#TwitchDoBetter trending as Twitch streamers flag racist bots & ‘hate raids’ Pexels / TwitchSocial media is rallying against Twitch as streamers call on the platform to address a recent trend where bots spam racist messages in chat. Centered on bots and ‘hate raids,’ the community has begun asking that #TwitchDoBetter. Twitch’s Terms of Service condemn any “hateful conduct,” which specifies any activity that includes discrimination based on ‘race, ethnicity, and color.’ As such, there are barriers to the free speech enjoyed by the Twitch community and the platform is publicly opposed to racist language. Unfortunately, bigots and follow bots are nothing new to the Twitch world and an unknown entity is creating numerous free accounts to harass Black streamers with racist chat spam. With Apex Legends streamer Solo being the latest victim of this harassment, #TwitchDoBetter has begun trending on Twitter as people stand in solidarity demanding change. Viewers and streamers alike are hoping Twitch can become a safer space by heightening security measures. (Content warning: inflammatory racist language used in screenshots below.) And it’s happened again. This is absolutely enough. If you’re taking 1/2 of our income then why are marginalized people still subject to lackluster safety protocols?#TwitchDoBetter <– use the hashtag, don't just retweet https://t.co/aYin88chwl — Raven's Not Here. (@RavenousTales_) August 9, 2021 Initially tweeted by Solo, RekItRaven follows by asking Twitch a direct question: “If you’re taking half of our income, then why are marginalized people still subject to lackluster safety protocols?” The existing protocols are already considered insufficient, as evidenced by the chat spam Solo was subjected to. Those messages, from various ‘soyboy’ bot accounts, essentially dehumanized Black people while bypassing Twitch auto-moderation with a misspelling of George Floyd. Understandably, Solo responded to the spam by calling the botters “pathetic f**king scum,” and has since begun using tools like Commanderroot to address the situation. Still, this is an unsatisfactory solution for most, who believe Twitch ought to take a stronger stance and enforce their ToS more proactively. All of my friends are getting hate raids lately. #TwitchDoBetter. Make the platform safe for us, first and foremost. And give us a bigger cut of the revenue as well. The amount of trolls and harassment marginalized streamers put up with does not make 50% sub revenue worth it. — chonki 👻 (@chonkikage) August 9, 2021 Another issue that this hashtag has brought attention to is the problem of “hate raids,” where users flood streamers with abusive language and derail the stream. Like the bot spam problem, people are hoping Twitch can be more active in preventing this sort of behavior. As RekItRaven and many across social media have illustrated though, Twitch is the one making money off of streamers and those creators shouldn’t have to find third-party help to avoid hate speech. At the moment, the platform’s representatives have yet to respond to the situation — but the trending hashtag has a clear goal: get Twitch to take action and make their platform a safer space for all.

Twitch’s April Fools joke made thousands of viewers watch pure silence TwitchTwitch may have had the last laugh on April Fool’s day as they tricked thousands of viewers into watching a stream of pure silence. April Fool’s day is always an interesting time of year for the internet, with creators across all platforms hoping to prank their viewers in some way. Streaming giant Twitch is likely to have hosted a wealth of pranks, but viewers might not have expected that the platform would, themselves, get in on the act. Armed with nothing but a good book and the sweet sound of silence, Twitch managed to reel in thousands of viewers, who stuck with them through a very mundane stream. Twitch’s Mary Kish reads in silence to thousands of viewers After just over 3 minutes of waiting, Twitch viewers were greeted by the platform’s own Mary Kish reading Junji Ito’s Lovesickness. With no backing music or vibrant on-screen graphics, Kish read in solitude while the chat was set in emoji-only mode. The only visuals that popped up were brief alert notifications, but outside of these fleeting messages, Kish continued reading without any distractions. Impressively, the stream swept up nearly 3,000 viewers upon its live debut but has since gone to pull in over 50,000 curious individuals through the VOD afterward. The Silent Reading genre was added to Twitch along with several other unique additions, as part of a fun rollout for April Fool’s day. Aside from basking in the silence of Mary Kish’s reading, viewers could also check out Chores, Pizza Time, Character Creation, Odd Jobs, and Errands. However, the runaway genre seemed to be Literally Just Chatting, as many streamers used it as a typical stream. Many streamers missed the point of Twitch’s playful jab here, as the genre was intended to turn the stream itself into an old-fashioned chatroom for the viewers.

TwitchCon Paris 2023: Dates, location, streamers, more TwitchTwitchCon Paris 2023 is coming sooner thank you think, and we have all the details about the event including dates, locations, and which streamers you’ll be able to meet. The dates and locations for TwitchCon 2023 were revealed by the company back in February 2023, leaving fans excited for the event to take place. The first of the two annual events takes place in Paris this July, with streamers from all over the world offering meet and greets for their fans. Here’s everything we know about the event so far, including dates, locations, and who you will be able to shake hands with. TwitchCon 2023 Paris dates & locations As revealed in Twitch’s February blog post, TwitchCon 2023 Paris will take place on July 8 & 9, 2023, at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Which streamers are attending TwitchCon 2023 Paris? Twitch was kind enough to send Dexerto a list of content creators from various countries that will be in attendance, hosting meet & greets, panels, and even participating in live entertainment. The Twitch community will be able to see live competitions between streamers, with Little Big Whale and Ponce hosting an event during TwitchCon. On top of that, popular Minecraft creators GeorgeNotFound, Karl Jacobs, and SapNap will be hosting a live episode of their Banter podcast. To see more events going on during TwitchCon Paris, head over to the website of the event. For more Twitch news and other viral stories, head over to check out Dexerto’s coverage.

TwitchCon US slammed as organizers ease health guidelines ahead of event Twitter: TwitchConTwitchCon US is facing major backlash due to the event organizers confirming they will not be putting any health and safety measures in place this year. As a result, people have taken to social media to voice their disappointment at this news. TwitchCon US is back in 2022 after being cancelled the previous year due to the global health crisis. However, the event is already facing scrutiny after Twitch revealed that there will be no measures put in place to ensure patrons are taking health and safety precautions seriously. TwitchCon recently updated the health measures section on their website, detailing how, “in accordance with current local guidelines”, there will no longer be any specific testing requirements in place. They then go on to add that this lack of guidelines means the event will essentially remain unchanged in how it ran prior to the emergence of the ongoing global crisis. “Although masks are encouraged, they are not currently required to attend TwitchCon,” the event guidelines then went on to add. “Please ensure you are comfortable with our current health and safety measures before you purchase your ticket to TwitchCon.” TwitchCon 2022 is set to take place at the San Diego Convention Center from October 7-9, 2022. San Diego. The news that there will be no mask mandates at this event is even more surprising given that Comic-Con 2022 – which was held only weeks ago at the same venue – had many health and safety measures in place. Backlash against TwitchCon 2022 health guidelines Following this update, many big figures across the Twitch community have begun expressing their disappointment at the idea that TwitchCon will not be putting any measures in place to ensure the safety of those in attendance. Some notable personalities are even recommending that community members avoid the event altogether due to TwitchCon’s health guidelines. However, the full statement from TwitchCon does state that these parameters are subject to change. Given how much backlash has already come from this announcement, there is a strong chance that the event will backtrack in the near future. For any news and updates on the upcoming TwitchCon event, all of Dexerto’s coverage can be found here.

TwitchCon Amsterdam canceled due to Coronavirus concerns TwitchThe TwitchCon Amsterdam events scheduled for the beginning of May has officially been canceled by Twitch, citing “Coronavirus concerns and potential health risks” to the community. Yet another massive gaming/esports event has unfortunately been derailed by the outbreak of the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. On March 6, Twitch announced that they had made the “incredibly difficult decision to cancel TwitchCon Amsterdam. In the statement, they said they had been monitoring the situation, but ultimately decided that the “health and safety of our community, employees, and everyone else is top priority. ” An important update on TwitchCon Amsterdam: https://t.co/PDYUMetQtn pic.twitter.com/SA1wVIs8mX — TwitchCon (@TwitchCon) March 6, 2020 The event was originally scheduled for May 2-3, 2020 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre. Twitch is offering full refunds to anyone who purchased a ticket, and cancellations are available until March 20. For people and companies who planned to exhibit at or sponsor the event, Twitch is offering them the full refund or the option to move their commitment to TwitchCon San Diego or TwitchCon Europe 2021. Twitch’s Director of Creator Development, Marcus ‘djWHEAT’ Graham acknowledged that canceling the event was sad, but necessary “given the state of things.” Since 2015, I’ve worked on 6 TwitchCon events. It’s sad to have to cancel, but given the state of things, it’s a pill I am able to swallow. I still think this is going to take a few days to fully sink in. My 💜 is heavy for the entire Twitch community today. https://t.co/nDsoDv9qIy — djWHEAT (@djWHEAT) March 6, 2020 The cancellation of TwitchCon Amsterdam is the latest in a string of gaming/esports events to be affected by the global outbreak of the Coronavirus. Twitch’s announcement comes just a day after Psyonix and Rocket League announced that their World Championships event in Dallas would be canceled due to the same concerns. Prior to that, Overwatch League homestands, the playoffs for the IEM Katowice CS:GO tournament, LCK and LPL matches, and even the Valorant gameplay capture event for influencers had all been derailed by the outbreak. Other conventions are at risk as well, as the Game Developers Conference was “indefinitely postponed” and E3 is reported to be considering a cancellation as well. Reports surfaced that it could also affect the production of the next generation of consoles, meaning the possibility of the Xbox One X and the PS5’s release dates being pushed back. We will provide any further updates with information regarding rescheduling of Twitch Con Amsterdam, as well as any other developments in the gaming/esports world as a result of Coronavirus concerns.

TwitchCon 2024 locations & dates revealed: Venues, ticket sales, more TwitchConTwitch’s annual streaming celebrations are now locked in for the calendar year as two TwitchCon 2024 events have been announced. From brand new locations to details on how to grab tickets, here’s all you need to know. For just shy of a decade now, Twitch has sought to bring much of its community together through large-scale, in-person events. What began in San Francisco in 2015 has since blossomed into an annual celebration avid Twitch fans note on their calendars with each passing year. Last year saw the event debut in two new locations with the first TwitchCon in Paris, as well as the first in North America outside of California, with Las Vegas serving as host. Now, the Amazon-backed platform looks to keep the ball rolling in 2024. From one more new location in the mix to the dates for both major conventions, here’s everything you need to know about TwitchCon events in 2024. TwitchCon 2024 event locations & dates The first TwitchCon event of 2024, TwitchCon Europe, is set to be held in Rotterdam Ahoy, Netherlands for the first time ever. This European convention runs June 29 – 30, 2024. Following just a few months behind, TwitchCon North America returns in 2024, heading back home to the San Diego Convention Center, a venue the event has featured at three times before. The North American event runs September 20 – 22, 2024. As a refresher, below is a quick look at all previous TwitchCon locations over the years: 2015 – San Francisco, California – 2016 – San Diego, California – 2017 – Long Beach, California – 2018 – San Jose California – 2019 – Berlin, Germany (TwitchCon Europe) & San Diego, California (TwitchCon North America) – 2020 – Cancelled – 2022 – Amsterdam, Netherlands (TwitchCon Europe) & San Diego, California (TwitchCon North America) – 2023 – Paris, France (TwitchCon Europe) & Las Vegas (TwitchCon North America) – TwitchCon 2024 ticket sales Alongside the venue and date announcements, Twitch also confirmed tickets will be available soon. First up, tickets for Twitch Europe will go on sale at some stage in February. An exact date and time is sure to be revealed in the coming weeks, so we’ll update you here when further details emerge. Meanwhile, no rough date has been provided for TwitchCon North America ticket sales of yet. Though fans can expect to see them on sale at least a few months ahead of time, no different from the above. All tickets can be purchased directly through the TwitchCon website here. Future TwitchCon locations locked in Amid the 2024 announcements, Twitch also took the opportunity to lock in plans for the next few years as well. On one hand, TwitchCon Europe is set to remain in Rotterdam Ahoy, Netherlands all the way through both 2025 and 2026. Meanwhile, TwitchCon North America is set to remain in the San Diego Convention Center until 2028. Meaning it could be five years until a North American event in any other state. While these two locations are now nailed down for the foreseeable future, it’s unclear if there’s room elsewhere in the calendar for further TwitchCon’s outside of these regions. If not, fans beyond Europe and North America may have to look at international travel if their heart is set on attending a Twitch event in the near future.

TwitchCon 2023 announced: Paris & Las Vegas, tickets, dates TwitchTwitchCon 2023 has just been announced, and this year the Amazon-owned platform is bringing fans together in Paris, France, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Here’s everything we know, including how to buy tickets to attend. Twice a year, Twitch brings fans together from around the world with two jam-packed live-streaming conventions taking place in iconic parts of the world. TwitchCon 2022 took place in San Diego, California, and Amsterdam, but it appears Twitch is shaking things up a bit this year with two new locations for fans to enjoy. Here’s everything we know about TwitchCon 2023, including where it’s happening as well as how to get tickets to attend the events yourself. TwitchCon 2023 dates & locations In a blog post from Twitch on February 16, they revealed the two new locations for TwitchCon 2023. TwitchCon Europe will take place in Paris, France on July 8 & 9, 2023 at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. – TwitchCon North America will debut in Las Vegas, Nevada, between October 20 and 22, 2023, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. – How to buy tickets to TwitchCon 2023 Tickets to TwitchCon in Las Vegas, Nevada went live on July 19, 2023. Grab your tickets here. However, TwitchCon Paris tickets went live on April 11, 2023. Grab your tickets here. One-day tickets are €75 per person, while two-day tickets are €125 each. There is not a 50% discount for Twitch partners this year, unfortunately. If you’re looking to book a hotel in advance, Twitch has provided discounted booking options for fans looking to attend Europe as well as North American events. We’ll be sure to update you with more news surrounding the upcoming events as Twitch reveals more information in the coming months. Who knows which musical artist will perform at the event this year, but Megan Thee Stallion twerking on Master Chief is going to be one heck of a performance to beat.

TwitchCon 2019: Streamers, events, schedule & more TwitchCon 2019 is upon us, and it’s a full weekend of festivities. Here’s all you’ll need to know about what’s going on. TwitchCon is a yearly conference that gives streamers a chance to meet up with fans and take a break from streaming, although many decide to still go live while at the conference. It’s a good opportunity for broadcasters to connect with fans on a more personal level and network with others in an attempt to grow their channels. TwitchCon 2019 is here. This year’s event will take place in San Diego, California from September 27 – 30, and is set to feature several Twitch Rivals events for viewers to watch as the action unfolds. On top of that, Twitch will also hold an official broadcast for viewers to watch everything else that’s going on – so they won’t miss a thing! shroud will be in attendance. TwitchCon 2019 schedule The first day gets off to a blazing hot start and doesn’t slow down until the end of the convention. You can check out the complete schedule of events here featuring everything from meets and greets and workshops to panels and award shows. No matter what time of the day it is, there’s stuff going on. On top of the regular schedule, there are a host of Twitch Rivals tournaments taking place that feature streamers from all around the world. The tournaments will feature Fortnite, Apex Legends, League of Legends, and Teamfight Tactics. Fortnite kicks off on Friday, LoL and TFT will split the action on Saturday, and the Sunday night tournament will be Apex Legends. Fortnite: September 27 – 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST / 2 AM BST – League of Legends: September 28 – 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST / 5 PM BST and 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST / 8 PM BST – Teamfight Tactics: September 28 – 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST / 6 PM BST and 3:30 PM PST / 6:30 PM EST / 11:30 PM BST – Apex Legends: September 29 – 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST / 5 PM BST and 1 PM PST / 4 PM EST / 9 PM BST – What streamers will be there? With this being Twitch’s marquee event of the year, there will be several big names in attendance such as Dr Disrespect, TimTheTatman, and many, many more. You can check if a Twitch partner is going to the convention by heading to the ‘Who’s coming’ page on the website and typing in their name. Are tickets still available? Unfortunately, tickets for the event are all sold out, so you’ll have to use a third-party method to get your hands on some. Tickets are all sold out. It’s sure to be a jam-packed weekend, so make sure you hang around and check out everything the conference has to offer.

TwitchCon 2022 announced: tickets, dates & locations TwitchTwitch has officially announced plans for TwitchCon in 2022, revealing the locations and months the live-streaming convention will take place. Here’s everything we know, including how to buy tickets to attend. Normally held twice a year, TwitchCon typically holds an event in North America and Europe to celebrate some of the platform’s streamers and communities. It hosts a wide range of activities to experience such as meet and greets, panels, and Twitch Rivals tournaments. While both events were replaced for GlitchCon in 2020 due to global health concerns, followed up by the cancellation of the event in 2021, they have released their plans to hold the events in 2022. TwitchCon 2022 dates & locations According to a blog post from the Amazon-owned website, in the past year, they have welcomed 8,550 new partners, as well as 548,000 affiliates, bringing the total to over 50,000 partners and 1.5 million affiliates on Twitch. They went on to cite an immense growth in the platform, and they’re excited to bring back the live-streaming convention. TwitchCon will have two events again, the first taking place in Amsterdam on July 16-17,2022, and San Diego on October 7-9 2022. Pack up. Suit up. Show up. TwitchCon is back and it won’t be the same without you. TwitchCon 2022. 🇳🇱 Amsterdam, July 16-17. 🇺🇸 San Diego, October 7-9.Answer the call for content, book your hotels and get all the updates you need at https://t.co/2Pd1rr3NNY. pic.twitter.com/SfiJRxgIV0 — TwitchCon (@TwitchCon) February 24, 2022 This will be the first time TwitchCon will take place in Amsterdam, as it was scheduled to take place there in 2020 before it was ultimately canceled alongside its San Diego counterpart. How to buy tickets to TwitchCon Amsterdam Announced on April 27, tickets to Twitchcon Amsterdam are now available on their website. Prices are 108 Euro for both days of the event and 65 Euro for a single day. According to the site, the cost includes 9% VAT. For those who purchase tickets to the event, here are the times in which you can pick up your badge. Friday – 12:00-20:00 – Saturday – 09:00 – 19:00 – Sunday – 09-00 – 15:00 – How to buy tickets to Twitchcon San Diego At the time of writing, Twitch has not made tickets available for San Diego. We’ll be sure to update this article when they do. The event often hosts tournament events for some of the biggest streamers and pro players in esports, in 2019 they held a Fortnite tournament. It was not without its issues though, as NICKMERCS threatened to leave over tournament problems, someone tried to fight Pokimane, and xQc got kicked out of a party. The conference is the main event for fans to meet their favorites and for Twitch to make big announcements on the future of the platform. It’s also always packed for both European and North American events.

Twitch & YouTube stats expose massive gap between male and female viewership Twitch, YouTubeDespite the first quarter of 2021 seeing the rise of Rachel ‘Valkyrae’ Hofsetter among other female creators, statistics show that the disparity between male and female streamers is still massive. Across Twitch and YouTube, the two major platforms for livestreamed gaming content, there are a number of standout names, of all genders. While women such as Valkyrae and Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys have risen to the upper echelons of streaming, they are surrounded by an overwhelming majority of men. In the top 100 most-watched streamers on Twitch, only 2 are not men: Pokimane and Hafu. This has been proven in a report of Q1, 2021, in which stats show that male streamers are, on average, attracting far more viewership than other genders. The report notes that “The male/female streamer gap is still substantial. Valkyrae placed 27th overall in total hours watched across both male and female streamers and Pokimane placed 98th.” Considering that both women wracked up 12.2m and 6.8m across YouTube and Twitch respectively, the queens of streams are both doing pretty well, but are still placing very far down the tier list. Part of this disparity can be explained by Twitch’s demographic. According to one report, in 2020, 65% of Twitch users were male. Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel tops the charts with 73.2m, which is more than 6 times Valkyrae’s numbers and the tenth highest streamer, Ibai ‘ibai’ Llanos, has 21.6m. The discrepancies are literally huge. It must be noted though, that hours watched is also influenced a lot by hours streamed. To compare xQc with Pokimane, for example, xQc has streamed 1,805 hours in the past 6 months, vs Pokimane’s 584 hours. In the VTube sphere, however, female avatars reign supreme. This may be due to the high anime-based viewership, but it’s definitely a sphere in which women seem to thrive more than men. While the stats could inspire a thousand different debates, it’s still good to see more female content creators breaking out into the fray. It’ll be interesting to see what quarter two of 2021 has in store.

TwitchCon 2019 San Diego dates and information announced With TwitchCon 2019 rapidly approaching, Twitch have just announced the dates and location for the 5th edition of the annual convention. TwitchCon is one of the biggest conventions in all of video games, bringing together many of the most popular streamers and personalities on Twitch. On February 20, Twitch officially announced that TwitchCon 2019 will take place from September 27-29 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. California. San Diego, we’re coming back to town for TwitchCon North America 2019. On September 27-29, get ready for a celebration of everything Twitch crammed into one awesome weekend. It’ll be like this video, but even better. Learn more at https://t.co/dSSlpfGF5J. pic.twitter.com/C3vFcdRMxG — TwitchCon (@TwitchCon) February 20, 2019 TwitchCon 2019 marks the fifth time in as many years that the popular convention will take place in California. It will also be TwitchCon’s second stint in San Diego, with TwitchCon 2016 also taking place at the San Diego Convention Center. No other details besides the venue and date were announced, but Twitch assured fans that more details on ticket sales, streamer appearances, and programming schedules would be revealed in the coming months. While TwitchCon started out as strictly a convention filled with streamer meet-and-greets and panels on various streaming topics, it’s quickly become one of the premier destinations for high-level esports competition, as well. During TwitchCon 2018, there were major tournaments held for both Fortnite and Call of Duty: Blackout. With the recent release and popularity spike of Apex Legends, including Twitch’s own Apex Legends Twitch Rivals tournament, there’s almost no doubt that it will also be heavily featured during TwitchCon 2019. You can read the full press release from Twitch below: Twitch Brings TwitchCon 2019 Back to San Diego Twitch, the leading service and community for multiplayer entertainment, today announced its 5th annual TwitchCon event will return to the San Diego Convention Center on September 27-29, 2019. TwitchCon is an annual celebration of the Twitch community, spanning its streamers, their fans and moderators, as well as developers, publishers, and brands. The conference was previously held in San Diego in 2016. To assist with accommodations at TwitchCon 2019, Twitch has secured a limited number of reduced-rate hotel rooms near the convention center. Since rooms at the group rate are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis, attendees are encouraged to book early for the best selection and price through Twitch’s online booking system located at TwitchCon.com. Additional TwitchCon 2019 details will be shared in the coming months, including ticket sales, call-for-content, Partner appearances, exhibitors, programming schedule, and more. To receive TwitchCon-specific updates, visit the TwitchCon homepage to sign up for the newsletter or follow the TwitchCon Twitter feed. Each year TwitchCon attracts tens of thousands of Twitch community members from all over the world. This year Twitch is also hosting its first TwitchCon Europe in Berlin.

Twitch lifts streamer’s wrongful ban after Reddit thread goes viral 18 months later YouTube: RyanWasTakenTwitch streamer ‘RyanWasTaken’ was banned back in July 2019 for reportedly engaging in “fraudulent activity.” He was on the cusp of partnership, and said he was wrongfully banned. Now, Twitch have owned up to their mistake after his plea went viral. RyanWasTaken is a Pokemon content creator, who at the time of his Twitch suspension in 2019 was on the cusp of becoming a partner on the platform. However, he was shot down just before applying. The platform accused him of “fraudulent activity,” such as using stolen credit cards to buy subs or defrauding his community. “ I got this email and it says that I was engaging in fraudulent activity in purchases or payouts and that I’m banned indefinitely. I didn’t do that,” he claimed. After 18 months of radio silence, Ryan was fed up. Trying to solve the issue privately was going nowhere, so he posted a video on YouTube on April 7 — and it went viral. “I absolutely agree with not unbanning a Twitch account for doing that but I didn’t do any of these things,” he said. “Every purchase I made on Twitch I made through my PayPal account or my own debit card, both of which I can prove are mine and I have access too.” Ryan claims in the month leading up to his ban, a user came in donating hundreds of subs to his channel. After approaching them, the gifter said it was because they got a large inheritance and wanted to change people’s lives. Ryan was planning to use the money to pay off a year of university before Twitch withheld his final payout. Hey, @TwitchSupport is there anything I can do to actually get a reply about this 18 month long false accusation? — RyanWasTaken (@RyanWasTakenToo) April 7, 2021 “This is just speculation, but that amount of gifted subs or donations has triggered some sort of flag on Twitch’s system, and they’ve gone: ‘We’re gonna ban him. Clearly they have stolen a credit card and they are gifting subs to their own channel.’ “I don’t know why they haven’t banned the person who also gifted and donated all of that money. They are still fine. They were streaming for a long time.” However, after the thread went viral on Twitter and Reddit, Ryan was finally unbanned and free to stream again on the platform. “Guys they did it thank you so much I’m actually crying,” he said on Twitter. GUYS THEY DID IT THANK YOU SO MUCH I’M ACTUALLY CRYING pic.twitter.com/KrNHLaTciQ — RyanWasTaken (@RyanWasTakenToo) April 7, 2021 It’s not clear if Ryan will receive the “thousands of dollars” his final payout was worth. However, the creator is now free to start streaming again, and it’s likely his first stream back will draw big numbers and a ton of support.

Twitch & YouTube stars rejoice as QTCinderella announces return of The Streamer Awards Instagram: QTCinderellaQTCinderella has officially confirmed the return of her highly-lauded event, The Streamer Awards — and content creators are already jumping for joy. Last year, popular Twitch streamer QTCinderella organized the first-ever independent streamer awards show that celebrated the best and brightest of online broadcasters from Twitch to YouTube and beyond. The Awards went off without a hitch and received an outpouring of praise and support from other streamers and their fans, with many viewers hoping the event would become a staple in coming years. It seems as though that wish has come to pass, as QT has just revealed that the Awards are back on for 2023 in a Twitter video on January 19. QTCinderella confirms Streamer Awards are coming back in 2023 This year, the Streamer Awards will see a bit of a change, as fans can now vote for what categories they want to present awards for. That’s not all; fans will also be able to attend the Awards in-person, marking a big shift from last year’s private, streamers-only affair. How to attend The Streamer Awards Tickets will be available for pre-sale for Twitch Partners starting January 19, 2022, at 4 PM PST. Remaining tickets will go on sale on January 21, 2022, at 12 PM PST. When are The Streamer Awards? Although not much information about the Awards has yet been shared, QT’s announcement video confirmed that they will be taking place on March 11, 2023, the same month as last year’s awards. Thus far, the announcement has already garnered a ton of hype, with other influencers already expressing excitement for another jam-packed event. 2023 Streamer Awards Categories Nominations are now open for The Streamer Awards, with users free to suggest their favorite broadcasters for a total of 26 different categories. The categories for the 2023 Streamer Awards are as follows: Best Battle Royale Streamer – Best MMORPG Streamer – Best Valorant Streamer – Best League of Legends Streamer – Best Soulslike Streamer – Best Roleplay Streamer – Best FPS Streamer – Best Strategy Game Streamer – Best VTuber – Best Chess Streamer – Best Music Streamer – Best Minecraft Streamer – Best Art Streamer – Best Speedrun Streamer – Best IRL Streamer – Hidden Gem Award – Best Philanthropic Stream Event – Stream Game of the Year – Best Variety Streamer – Best Just Chatting Streamer – Best Streamed Event – Best Content Organization – Rising Star Award – League of Their Own – Gamer of the Year – Streamer of the Year – Top influencers react to Streamer Awards coming back in 2023 Names like Daily Dose of Internet, BrookeAB, Smash pro HungryBox, and of course, Ludwig, all chimed in on the big reveal. QT has become recognized in the space for her dedication to organizing live events for streamers, having also put together the highly-successful “shitcamp” of 2022. Who knows — maybe that event will also make a comeback in the coming months. For now, fans will have to watch and wait as more info becomes available.

Twitch won’t unban Jidion over “extreme harassment” in Pokimane hate raid Jidion (Twitch)Twitch is refusing to unban influencer Jidion Adams due to “extreme harassment” he caused to Pokimane, after he orchestrated a hate raid against the streamer back in January. At the beginning of the year, Twitch star Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys had to call it quits early during her January 12 broadcast, after fellow creator Jidion organized his community to raid the popular streamer with hate messages. Jidion apologized publicly to Pokimane and urged his fans to stop attacking her. However, it was far too late, as he received a permanent ban from Twitch. Regardless, in a shocking turn of events, just a couple of weeks later the two went from enemies to pals, as they met up for a surprise collab. As it turns out, Jidion’s public apology prompted Pokimane to reach out privately. In a call together, Anys noted that he was “actually really nice” as he continued to “profusely” apologize. However, despite them making up, and even enjoying some fast food together, it looks like Jidion may never be able to truly move on. He’s revealed Twitch won’t be allowing him back on the site anytime soon. Twitch denies Jidion’s ban appeal In a series of tweets on July 13, Jidion revealed that he’d spoken with a Twitch representative on Zoom. Sadly, it’s not looking good for his fans, as he revealed the Amazon-owned platform isn’t looking to have him back. “Just got off a Zoom call with a Twitch Rep… I’m never coming back,” Jidion wrote on Twitter. In a follow-up tweet, Jidion shared a screenshot of an email he received from Twitch after the call. According to the email, Jidion was suspended for “extreme harassment,” and his account will remain suspended. The beef between Poki and Jidion is long-settled. However, it looks like we won’t be seeing any of Jidion on Twitch anytime soon. As a result of the ban, Jidion won’t even be able to make guest appearances on other streams either.

Twitch viewership begins to fall off cliff as big streamers move to Mixer Twitch has experienced its first consecutive loss in viewership ever, which comes after rival streaming platform, Mixer, signed two of their biggest names. Twitch has long been known as the flagship streaming platform. Launched in June of 2011, the livestreaming service has long been known as the go-to for all things video games related. More recently, the platform has expanded its horizons through bringing more variety to the range of content that is available — from real-life streams to broadcasting live sporting events (such as the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix). Regardless of their efforts, Amazon’s streaming service has experienced its first concurrent viewership decline in its operational history. Following a boom in viewership back in April of 2016, Thinknum Media have reported a “sustained downtrend” – after peaking with 982 million unique viewers in July – for the first time in the streaming platform’s history. Since Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch in August 2014, the platform has gone from strength-to-strength — as stated in the report: “From March 2016 to July 2019, Twitch’s viewership was generally a straight line pointed upwards, but August and September showed concurrent dips in viewership.” However, since the loss of streaming sensation, Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins back in August 2019, the platform has struggled to maintain their viewership figures — with Mixer signing the star on an exclusive deal. Even following on from Fortnite’s ‘The End’ event – which crashed Twitch’s servers as viewers poured in from far and wide – October has dipped to 800 million viewers. More recently, Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek announced his move over to Mixer, with Cory ‘Gothalion’ promptly following suit. Indeed, only time will tell whether Twitch continue on their downtrend, or whether they can stop the bleeding and regain their viewership numbers back up to near the 1 billion mark.

Twitch won’t return top Pokemon speedrunner’s hacked account The Pokemon Company / UnsplashA world record-holding Pokemon speedrunner has revealed that Twitch are refusing to recover his channel after it was hacked and he lost control of it. Exarion is widely recognized as one of, if not the best speedrunner in the world, which sees players attempting to complete games in the shortest time possible. The Minnesota native currently holds the fastest times for completing a number of Pokemon titles such as Red, Yellow, and Emerald, and regularly streams his attempts on his Twitch channel, but has lost control of his account. The channel has since been removed entirely, and Exarion has revealed that despite an attempt to regain access to it, Twitch have so far refused to help him, despite his status as a Twitch partner. The streamer states that he filed a ticket about the issue with the service, and even though he provided information that the Amazon-owned platform asked for, they decided not to reinstate the channel and return ownership to him. The reason is currently unknown, but Dexerto have reached out for clarification. “My partnered Twitch account was hacked, and I’m currently unable to access the account,” wrote Exarion on Twitter. “When I filed a ticket with Twitch and provided personal information, Twitch said they couldn’t grant me access.” My partnered Twitch account was hacked, and I’m currently unable to access the account. When I filed a ticket with Twitch and provided personal information, Twitch said they couldn’t grant me access. Can @TwitchSupport help? Please RT for visibility. — Exarion (@ExarionU) June 18, 2019 For streamers, losing their Twitch channel is a huge blow, as every day they spend unable to stream is more potential revenue gone in the form of lost viewership, advertizing, subscribers and even sponsorship deals. What makes matters worse for Exarion is that while many streamers see their account removed because they have broken Twitch’s rules, he has lost control of his channel through no fault of his own, but rather through the malicious actions of the hacker. The speedrunner has reached out Twitch Support on Twitter for assistance, and has asked fans to retweet his message in the hopes that he can get his account back.

Twitch viewership declines almost 10% in the past year as rivals circle TwitchOverall viewership on Twitch, both in terms of hours watched and average concurrent viewers, has declined 9.4% year-over-year. Meanwhile, there is growing competition from rival platforms attempting to take their own slice of the pie. For over a decade, Twitch has been top of the pile for video game livestreams, at least in the west, and it has become a leading destination for non-gaming streams, too, from ‘Just Chatting’ to art, music, and hot tub streams. Twitch’s popularity peaked in 2021, when many of us were still stuck indoors, and streamers were there to keep us company. A predictable decline followed as the world opened up, but the slow but sure slide continued into 2023. Twitch drops almost 10% in viewers Twitch stats tracking website SullyGnome provides a snapshot of Twitch viewership over the long term, starting back in January 2016, when the average viewership for the whole site was 646,000. Average viewership peaked in April 2021 at 3.1 million. The decline has been steady since, dropping to as low as 2.2 million in December 2022. A slight bounce back in January, to 2.5 million, is healthy, but still represents a 13% drop from January of last year. Overall, there has been a 9.4% decline in both average viewership and hours watched in the past 12 months. Is Twitch dying? No – these stats don’t show that Twitch is in any kind of catastrophic decline. But it’s clearly not a positive sign. The drop also lines up with a decline in hours streamed, which was 9.8% down – as was the average number of channels streaming. There are a number of factors that could influence this. One is out Twitch’s control – the popularity of new game releases, and the seemingly decreasing interest in esports titles like League of Legends, Dota2 and CS:GO. But the elephant in the room is streamers leaving Twitch to stream on YouTube, Facebook Gaming, or Kick. YouTube has signed a number of Twitch’s biggest stars to exclusive deals, and the new kid on the block, Kick, is offering 95% revenue splits. Meanwhile, Twitch has been reluctant to fend off competition with exorbitant deals or increased revenue splits. In fact, the platform is instead reducing subscription revenue for those previously on the 70/30 split, making 50/50 the standard. This is also lower than YouTube’s 70/30 split. In the past 12 months, the number of “active” partnered streamers has dropped 5.4%, to 50,702. Active affiliate streamers have declined by 9.3%, to 2.06 million. There have been wins for Twitch too, though. The platform hit a new peak viewership record in June at 6.7 million. There has also been positive feedback on improved moderation tools and engagement mechanics like channel points and emotes. Twitch is also still home to many of the biggest streamers, including xQc, Kai Cenat, Ibai, Auronplay, GrefG, Hasan, Gaules and more. Unfortunately, data for both YouTube and Kick is not so readily available, but YouTube has undoubtedly increased its market share with big-name signings, and Kick bragged of reaching 1 million users in only 69 days. It was not disclosed if these are logged-in users or just website visitors, however. 2023 will be a testing year for all streaming platforms but particularly for Twitch, which once held an impossibly strong grip on the industry. Will it be able to maintain its spot at the top?

Twitch suffers biggest viewership drop in years in November 2022, but why? TwitchTwitch’s viewership is at its lowest point since September 2020, with the platform as a whole racking up less than 1.7 billion hours watched in November 2022. The 10% drop between October and now is the biggest since June 2021, but why’s that the case? Twitch has seen rapid growth since the beginning of 2020. With people locked in their homes, more took to the Amazon-owned streaming platform to pass the time, either showcasing their own lives or joining the chat of someone else to get some much-needed socialization. Across the last two years, the platform has experienced rapid growth. However it’s starting to plateau, with the latest stats in November highlighting a potential reversal. Twitch’s viewership stats for the last month are the lowest they’ve been since September 2020, with 1.69 billion hours of content watched in November. It’s still significantly higher than the 1 billion hours boasted in January and February 2020, but it’s part of a noted decline. The 10% drop in viewership from October to November is the biggest since June 2021’s 15% fall. If you fear this is going to be the end of Twitch though, maybe hang off the conspiracy talk. It’s not the first time Twitch’s viewership has fluctuated like this at the end of the year. November 2021 faced a similar fate of a 10.3% decline from October’s numbers, although the overall figure of 1.81 billion is a decent chunk higher. November is typically a slower month on the platform. There’s American holidays to worry about, like Thanksgiving. Esports events like Dota 2’s The International, CS:GO Majors, and League of Legends’ World Championship typically end, so esports viewership is down. In 2022, the Worlds final took place in November, and so too the Rio CS:GO Major — both of which set records. While major game releases can spur some upticks in performance, like God of War: Ragnarok and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II for this year, there are typically less viewers to go around at this time. There are some growing pains that are hard to ignore. Twitch’s stance on creator pay has seen many top talents leave the platform for its biggest rival in YouTube Gaming. Some smaller creators, who have kept ticking things over, have stopped as a result — the platform has only around a million Affiliate and Partner streamers now, down from its peak of 1.25 million in January this year. The average number of channels live at any one time is the lowest it’s been since April 2020, sitting around 88,000. There are some other fingers that could be pointed. The platform’s gambling ban, while praised by a majority of viewers, basically killed one of its most popular categories across the last two years in Slots. The increase in harassment and hate raids could have turned off some users, although Twitch is attempting to combat this with new solutions for streamers. There’s a whole myriad of reasons why Twitch’s viewership is at its lowest point since mid-2020, just as the streaming space was taking off into the stratosphere. It’s obvious based on last year growth has plateaued, but it will only be a matter of time before it takes off again.

Twitch viewers furious as platform promotes alleged “anti-trans” charity TwitchTwitch has come under fire from its users after the platform added an alleged “anti-trans” charity to their live-stream fundraising tool. Back in July 2022, Twitch launched an integrated charity feature that allows creators to fundraise for their favorite causes without having to use an external platform. The Amazon-owned site added more charities to the tool on December 7, to the tune of “tens of thousands” more. However, Twitch users are furious after finding out they’ve added an alleged “anti-trans” charity as an option. Twitch users furious after alleged “anti-trans” charity promoted The charity in question, LGB Alliance, states: “We recognize that sex is binary, female and male, and that sex is determined at conception, observed at birth (or in utero), and recorded. We reject the co-opting of rare medical Differences in Sexual Development in order to cast doubt on the binary nature of sex.” In the replies to the announcement tweet, Twitch users are sharing their distaste towards the alleged “anti-trans” charity being added to the platform. A Twitch streamer replied with a screenshot of the description alongside their thoughts: “Disgusting. Vet your ‘charities.’” Disgusting. Vet your “charities”. pic.twitter.com/NSJeFzqeFl — 🎄Fiona🎄 (📌GFM) (@FioDeer) December 8, 2022 “Sorry, what? LGB Alliance? The explicitly anti-trans hate group? AND Autism Speaks? Wanna maybe try vetting these ‘charities’ again?” one user replied. Sorry, what? LGB Alliance? The explicitly anti-trans hate group? AND Autism Speaks? Wanna maybe try vetting thise ‘charities’ again? — Felix🏳️⚧️ (@whiten0iz) December 8, 2022 On top of that, users have made a post on Twitch’s UserVoice forum to request LGB Alliance and Autism Speaks be removed from the Charity fundraising tool. It received 3,746 votes within the first 24 hours since it was posted. Twitch has not responded to the requests as of writing, but Dexerto has reached out to the platform and will update this article if they respond.

Twitch viewership actually grows despite Kick stealing away big streamers TwitchTwitch and Kick’s ongoing battle for streaming supremacy hit a surprise twist in June as the Amazon-owned platform actually increased in viewership. Twitch has reigned on top of the streaming world for years, but Kick has emerged as a true competitor and has made inroads by signing some of the most popular streamers on the internet. June was one of the biggest months ever for Kick, as they snagged Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel with a mammoth $70M non-exclusive deal, and followed that up by announcing that OnlyFans icon Kaitlyn ‘Amouranth’ Siragusa was also joining. Despite these two massive moves, Twitch seemed unfazed, and even saw an overall viewership growth that month compared to previous ones. Twitch sees increased viewership even as Kick signs top stars According to StreamElements, Twitch saw a slight daily viewership increase in the shorter month of June. The Amazon-owned site averaged 56,919M hours of content watched per day, which is 18M more than May. “Although the overall time spent viewing Twitch over the last four months has climbed and dipped a couple times because some months are longer than others, the trend being overlooked is the daily growth,” explained StreamElements CEO Gil Hirsch. “Since March, the hours watched each day has steadily increased, painting an optimistic picture on the momentum front.” A big reason for June’s success could be the launch of Diablo 4, which was the most-viewed game by a wide margin throughout the month. Diablo 4 had a whopping 156M hours watched, 60M more than second-place League of Legends. Just Chatting, however, remains the top overall category on the platform, amassing an overwhelming 246M hours watched in total. We’ll have to see if July tells a different story and if Kick can halt Twitch’s momentum as the streaming wars between the two companies wages on.

Twitch viewers demand changes as ‘topless’ streamers hop to ‘implied nudity’ meta Twitch/jenfoxxxThe controversial Twitch ‘topless’ meta has continued to evolve with more streamers switching gears by adding censor bars to their broadcasts to invoke implied nudity. It’s been a December to remember for Twitch. The Amazon-owned platform has had to deal with two controversial new streaming types and the response has created as much drama as the metas themselves. It all started when Twitch streamer ‘Morgpie’ went viral for appearing to stream topless, but in an interview with Dexerto, she revealed that she was wearing clothes underneath. This resulted in Twitch changing its community guidelines to allow for “artistic nudity,” but the site quickly reverted the update after streamers took things too far. Now, the ante has been upped again as content creators use censor bars to make their streams look more sexual than they are. ‘Topless’ Twitch streamers hide implied nudity with censor bars On December 19, a Dexerto tweet highlighting streamer Firedancer using censor bars over her bra went viral resulting in other streamers joining in on the action. Popular hot tub streamer JenFoxxx, formerly known as Indiefoxx, was one such streamer, utilizing censor bars to make it appear as if she was wearing nothing at all. While this may all be in good fun, that didn’t stop viewers and other streamers from voicing their frustration with the amount of sexual content on the platform. “Twitch used to be an app for kids btw,” said Kick streamer charc. “Why not imply a rule to the TOS that both Vtubers and IRL streams need to always show that some type of clothing is being worn? That way, it’s the same for everyone?” suggested artist Kitsunie. “Twitch has an implied nudity issue that they are refusing to fix,” remarked HUN2R. “Every update they have people just pushing the boundaries as far as they can.” Others shifted the blame and took issue with the fans watching the content. Parents even chimed in, saying their kids won’t be allowed on the site until their are fixes. However, not everyone was on board, as some users seemed to voice their approval for the new type of content. So far, Twitch has yet to comment on this wild new meta and we’ll have to wait and see just how far streamers can push the limit before potential bans are handed out. For more Twitch news, keep it locked to Dexerto.

Twitch uphold hate speech ban against streamer who claims he said “yikers” Instagram: pinkwardlolLeague of Legends streamer who claims to have used the word “yikers” during a broadcast, which was mistaken for a racial slur. Hunter ‘Pink Ward’ Trahan is a LoL streamer on the platform, but had his Twitch account shut down by the company back in May for “hateful conduct.” Pink Ward believes this refers to a moment on his stream in which he says “yikers” in response to behaviour from an opposing player, but could possibly be misheard as a racial slur. Pink Ward is a League of Legends streamer on Twitch. In a clip taken by the streamer from from his broadcast. Pink Ward’s teammate can be heard saying “yikes” when an enemy player refers to the LoL player as a “fat pig.” In the clip, Pink Ward can be heard calling the opposing player salty, before using what sounds like the phrase “fucking yikers,” a claim he vehemently maintains, despite some viewers feeling he may have used the slur. The streamer received a 30 day ban from the site on May 17, and has been trying to get his ban overturned ever since, saying that he understands what people might have heard, but feels that Twitch haven’t taken context or intent into account when handing down the ban. I can understand what people might have heard, but I said Yikers. Stated in their own community guidelines, context will be taken into account. I have no background of being racist, I have never been banned before and, in the same clip I posted, I reassured chat I didn’t say it. pic.twitter.com/rwjXGuICja — Pink Ward (@Pinkwardlol) June 7, 2019 Despite his protests, it appears that Pink Ward will have to serve out the entirety of his 30 day ban, revealing on June 10 that he had reopened his ticket in the hopes of receiving a response from Twitch about the ban, but had it closed again. “Guess my ban is just going to get swept under the rug,” wrote Pink Ward on Twitter. “I thought I had a chance at getting unbanned. I guess it’s confirmed that context doesn’t matter. In the end, Twitch will ban who they want to ban.” Bumped my ticket last night in hopes I’d get a response, but it just got closed, no response. Guess my bans gonna get swept under the rug. I’ll have to wait up to 4 months to get partnered with the strike on my acc. Only way to bypass is to get on a team, guess i’m going pro! :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: pic.twitter.com/S3pSt1bKHp — Pink Ward (@Pinkwardlol) June 10, 2019 I thought I had a chance at getting unbanned. I guess it’s confirmed that context doesn’t matter. In the end Twitch will ban who they want to ban. Thank those of you who’ve helped me and have been on my side through this. 30 day ban ends next week. Much love, cya then. — Pink Ward (@Pinkwardlol) June 10, 2019 The streamer says his biggest issue with the ban is the lack of communication he has received from Twitch about it, despite sending multiple emails and tickets about the situation. Pink Ward explained: “My problem is no communication. My tickets have been changed from open to closed. I’ve only gotten one email about it. At this point, either the system is automatically closing them, or someone’s fucking with me.” My problem is no communication. My tickets have been changed from open, to closed, reopened them, they were changed to resolved, so I reopened again. I’ve only gotten one email about it. At this point either the system is automatically closing them, or someone’s fucking with me. pic.twitter.com/pVyYChV8Fr — Pink Ward (@Pinkwardlol) June 9, 2019 The LoL player suggests that he is anxious to return to Twitch, stating that due to the strike on his account, he will not be able to apply for a Twitch partnership for another three months. This isn’t the first time Twitch’s policy on banning channels for using hate speech has come under scrutiny, with a number of World of Warcraft streamers claiming that they had been banned for typing the name of the game’s NPCs in chat. We’ll be sure to update this story as new information becomes available.

Twitch users divided over petition to make Reckful the new PogChamp emote Twitch / ReckfulFollowing the removal of the PogChamp emote from Twitch, some fans have been petitioning to have the late streamer Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein as the new face of PogChamp as a tribute to his memory, though many have stressed that the idea may end up causing more harm than good. PogChamp has become a staple of Twitch culture since it was implemented on the site in 2012, and has even become part of many streamers and fans’ vocabulary. The emote featured the face of Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez, taken from an outtake of one of his videos from back in 2010. However, on January 6, Twitch announced that they would be removing the much-loved emote after Ryan posted a Tweet about the protests in the US which was deemed by Twitch to be “encouraging further violence.” Though viewers were shocked, the company did state that “we will work with the community to design a new emote for the most hype moments on Twitch.” It didn’t take long for fans to speculate over who could be made the new face of PogChamp, and one name many felt drawn to was Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein who sadly passed away in July 2020. Reckful was hugely influential in the streaming scene, and with his passing even prompted “not only the largest in-game memorial but also the largest in-game player-driven event” in the history of World of Warcraft, a testament to how loved he was by the community. Today we all witnessed not only the largest in-game memorial but also the largest in-game player-driven event in the history of World of Warcraft In times like this it’s easy to think of the evil that people are capable of but we can’t forget the purity and kindness as well. pic.twitter.com/5mzOSZrM3Z — Zack (@Asmongold) July 3, 2020 Viewers start petition for new PogChamp face For that reason, Twitch users have started a petition to make Byron the new face of PogChamp, saying “As PogChamp has been removed, honoring what Reckful did for Twitch by making him a global emote in replacement for PogChamp would satisfy those who have been asking for a global emote since his passing and be a good new face for the emote.” Signers agreed with the sentiment, writing, “please make it happen, Reckful was such an important person on Twitch and his memory should be immortalized with a global emote.” Some users disagree with the petition However, others in a Reddit thread about the petition were concerned that the emote may actually end up being used in a disrespectful way. “I like the idea but I worry about some people may misuse the emote to represent anything depression/suicide-related,” one Redditor wrote. Another said, “I love Reckful but this is a horrible idea. Think of the pain it will remind some of his close friends and even viewers when it’s used.” It’s unclear how long it will take for Twitch to reinstate some form of PogChamp, though the selection process for a new face may take longer than many expected.

Twitch updates sexual content guidelines amid ‘topless’ meta backlash Twitch / MorgpieTwitch has updated its guidelines on sexual content following mass outrage that occurred as a result of a new ‘topless’ meta taking over the site. Over the weekend of December 8, a new ‘meta’ gained popularity on Twitch after streamer, cosplayer, and OnlyFans model ‘Morgpie’ went viral on social media. Morgpie’s stream showed the broadcaster seemingly topless, sparking outrage across the net as to what kinds of content was allowed on Twitch. Three days later, Morgpie was banned — but now, Twitch has officially switched up its guidelines in relation to sexual content on its platform, making big changes for streamers. Twitch changes guidelines after ‘topless’ stream backlash In response to feedback from streamers regarding its guidelines, Twitch rolled out a massive update to its “approach to sexual content” on December 13. In a large post, Twitch clarified a few major changes for the update, one of which now allows “content that ‘deliberately highlights breasts, buttocks or pelvic region,’ even when fully clothed” — provided that it is properly labeled. This aligns with one of the three reasons Twitch gave Morgpie for her ban earlier this week, leaving viewers assuming that ‘topless’ streams might be allowed moving forward. Twitch also admitted that its previous outlook on this content “was out of line with industry standards and resulted in female-presenting streamers being disproportionately penalized.” Other policies that were once prohibited and are now allowed with a label include “fictionalized …fully exposed female-presenting breasts and/or genitals or buttocks regardless of gender,” “body writing on female-presenting breasts and/or buttocks regardless of gender,” and “erotic dances that involve disrobing or disrobing gestures, such as strip teases.” That’s not all; certain dances, such as “twerking, grinding, and pole dancing” are now allowed to stream on Twitch without a label, and broadcasts that are labeled with “Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; Gambling; and/or Sexual Themes” will no longer be allowed on Twitch’s home page. This marks a major shift for Twitch’s policies on such content. While responses currently appear to be mixed, many viewers are happy about the changes coming to the site’s homepage, regardless. Keep it locked to Dexerto for more Twitch news and entertainment.

Twitch upgrades JiDion ban to permanent after streamer’s Pokimane hate raids Twitch: Pokimane / YouTube: JidionTwitch upgraded JiDion’s 14-day ban to a permanent one after he orchestrated a “hate raid” on Pokimane’s stream, but he claims their decision was influenced by external pressure. JiDion encouraged his viewers to launch a “hate raid” on Pokimane’s Twitch stream on January 12. He was promptly banned from the platform for 14-days shortly after. It happened a mere day after his account was verified. At the time, he accepted full responsibility for breaking the terms of service. However, he insisted that it had nothing to do with her gender. “My dislike for her has nothing to do with her gender, but her as a person!” In an interesting turn of events, JiDion revealed that Twitch has now upgraded it to a permanent ban. He believes the initial ban was justified. However, he claims the permaban “isn’t fair,” and he explained why. Ban went from 14 days to a perma😔 please use the #twitchfreejidion for me boys❤️ — WiDion (@Jidion6) January 16, 2022 “I’m not here to talk about why I got banned because I deserved to get banned,” he said. “It is what it is. I broke the terms of service. But what I am here to talk about is that I’m here to ask Twitch to make it fair.” He explained that his initial ban was only for 14-days. However, JiDion claims Twitch decided to make it permanent due to pressure from the community saying it wasn’t severe enough, and he believes that isn’t fair. “I feel Twitch should keep my 14-day suspension, especially for a first-time offense, and not let outside factors determine [it]. What I did was wrong. But how am I supposed to do better the next time if I never get a next time?” https://twitter.com/Jidion6/status/1482852019572518917?s=20 After the incident, other streamers rallied behind Pokimane, and JiDion believes their influence ultimately shaped the decision. Read More: xQc defends Pokimane after Twitch harassment – Twitch hasn’t commented on the situation yet. However, JiDion promised that he “will be doing better in the future” if he gets a second chance.

Twitch unveils new policy to combat inappropriate usernames TwitchTwitch has announced a new policy for the platform that aims to combat inappropriate account names created by its users. Back in August 2021, Twitch streamers began calling for change on the platform after mass hate raids began targeting people of color and the LGBTQ+ communities. The Amazon-owned website revealed its first change a few months later, giving streamers an option to only allow people who have verified their accounts with a phone number in order to talk in Twitch chat. Twitch has since revealed that they have more measures in the pipeline and revealed their latest one in a Feb 10 blog post to repel inappropriate usernames. Twitch unveils new username policy The popular streaming platform has revealed its updated username guidelines in an attempt to set a “higher bar” for what is acceptable to better serve the Twitch community. They claim that the policy sets more consistent and strict parameters for usernames, both existing and newly created. In the blog post, Twitch revealed that the updated policy details exactly what kind of names will violate the new guidelines. New Twitch username protects against: hate speech – threats of violence – personal information – references to sexual acts, arousal, fluids, or genitalia – hard drug references — excluding alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana – The company will not begin enforcing these new guidelines until March 1, 2022, allowing streamers to adapt to the new policy without having their account locked. How Twitch will enforce new username policy When it comes to enforcing these new changes, Twitch revealed its tiered enforcement strategy. Though the company is giving people time to change their account names, punishments range from forced name changes to possible bans. If your existing username is a violation of the new guidelines and it references hatred, harassment, or violence, you will be issued an indefinite suspension. However, for references to hard drugs or sexual conduct — you’ll be able to change your name. If your name violates the new policy but is not a clear violation of the community guidelines, Twitch will lock your account with the option to unlock it by changing your name. The company also explained that they have created a ‘machine’ that will flag any attempts to create offending usernames. This change comes just four days after Twitch streamer ‘Doaenal’ was indefinitely banned from the platform for having an “inappropriate username” despite being on the platform since 2019. Shortly after the username policy was announced, the streamer posted on Twitter to express his confusion. “You go on to state that you wouldn’t enforce bans until March 1, yet I was indefinitely banned on February 6th? When will this be cleared up?”

Twitch updates rules on deepfake content following Atrioc controversy Twitch/Unsplash: AxvilleTwitch has issued an update to their Community Guidelines regarding deepfake content just weeks after Atrioc showed some on his stream. Back in January, Twitch streamer Atrioc went viral with his apology after paying for and showing deepfake pictures of various female content creators during his broadcast. After backlash from the affected creators, Atrioc announced a streaming break and departure from Ludwig’s OFFBRAND agency. Twitch has updated its Community Guidelines regarding deepfake content as a result of the controversy, making it clear that kind of content is not welcome on the platform. Twitch updates rules on deepfake content In a blog post on March 7, 2023, Twitch explained that deepfake content isn’t welcome on the platform and they’re issuing an update to Community Guidelines. Twitch also revealed that they learned by speaking with experts in the field that deepfake images are more widely known as “synthetic non-consensual exploitative images (synthetic NCEI)” and refer to them as such throughout the guidelines. Here are the policy updates Twitch will set into place in the near future: Intentionally promoting, creating, or sharing synthetic NCEI on the platform can result in indefinite suspension on the first offense. – The Adult Nudity policy will be updated to include synthetic NCEI, even when shown only briefly. It will be removed and will result in enforcement. – They also said: “When [AI is] used to create synthetic NCEI… the creation, promotion, or viewing of this content is not welcome on Twitch.” For more Twitch news and other viral stories, head over to our entertainment section.

Twitch unveils Founders Badge designed to help starting streamers TwitchTo aid the growth of new streamers on their platform, and to reward long-standing members of a Twitch community, Twitch has introduced a brand new viewer badge for viewers of Affiliated or Partnered streams. First. A simple word that’s become a long-running joke on any website with a comment or chat section. For those who don’t use it mockingly, it’s a way to declare to the world that you, before anyone else, witnessed that piece of content with your eyeballs first. Read more: Top 10 most downvoted Reddit comments ever – But Twitch is adding a new feature for those who want to label themselves as first in a different way, in an attempt to help smaller and just-starting streamers have additional ways to build and maintain their viewer base. It’s called the Founders Badge. :loudspeaker: First! We know how special those who support you are. Now the founding Subscribers of your channel can rep that status with their new Founder’s Badge! The first 10 Subs for Affiliates and 25 Subs for Partners will receive this new badge. :books:: https://t.co/sZYKOnsmMU pic.twitter.com/lgkoodNrXL — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) October 10, 2019 The Founders Badge is an all-new viewer badge that’s now added to the growing repertoire of viewer badges, which include cheering chat badges, subscriber badges, sub gifting badges, the Twitch prime icon, and many more. According to Twitch, the Founders Badge “is a subscriber badge that will be exclusively available to the first 10 prime or paid subscribers of Affiliate channels and first 25 prime or paid subscribers of Partner channels.” For streamers, anyone who is an Affiliated or Partnered streamer will have the Founders Badge enabled already, and if they advance from Affiliate to Partner, then the additional 15 Founders Badges will be added to the corresponding viewers automatically. For viewers, they can choose to display the Founders Badge or their Sub Loyalty Badge if they so choose. If they no longer subscribe to a channel, viewers do not lose their Founders Badge for that channel but will be unable to display it until they resub. Viewers will only lose the Founders Badge if they delete their account or receive a site-wide ban. Viewers who were gifted subscriptions will not qualify for the Founders Badge, only paid or Prime subs will be eligible. Many Twitch fans have expressed a lot of excitement for the new badge. Twitch partner and full-time streamer summit1g even asked for a version for “first chatters” as well, one that designates which viewers were the first the join the stream for that day. Twitch streamer Pokket brought up one potential issue though. Streamers that took extended breaks from streaming may have lost most of their founding subs and may see little to none of their founders in the chat today. Those former subscribers will receive emails that they’ve received the Founders Badge, but there’s no guarantee that they will re-sub. Regardless, congratulations to the new Founders. You’re first forever.

Twitch streamers criticize “awful” new sponsorship system where platform takes a cut Twitch/Unsplash: Stanley LiTwitch streamers have voiced their concerns with the platform’s plans for a new system around sponsorships, with many worried Twitch will be taking a hefty cut for themselves. Even though Twitch has cemented itself as the go-to platform for the majority of streamers, there have been plenty of issues from them with the Amazon-owned platform. Many of these complaints have centered around Twitch taking a big split of subscriber revenue, a massive increase in adverts, as well as numerous others. As ever, it usually boils down to things being about money. Naturally, some of the biggest streamers look outside of Twitch for additional revenue streams, typically bringing in their own sponsors. Now, Twitch wants to revamp their own sponsor system, but streamers aren’t too pleased. Twitch streamers hit out at new sponsor system On April 4, the Amazon-owned platform announced that viewers and streamers may see sponsored streams starting to be tested, where sponsors have the ability to pay with gifted subscriptions. This, naturally, raised some eyebrows given Twitch gets a cut of subscriptions anyway, and if they’re acting like a middleman to negotiate these deals with sponsors, they could be taking a big chunk away from streamers. “Whilst this may make things more streamlined for some people. It honestly sounds like you are just trying to take a cut from sponsored content,” Escape from Tarkov star Pestily said. “No thanks, I like to manage my sponsorships and the income I personally derive from that work myself. cute idea though” PaladinAmber replied. “Could you start testing a way to stop taking half of my income instead?” added Bearki. Rust streamer HJune added that he was “honestly bummed” to see “no integrity” around Twitch’s statements to increase pay for creators. “Sponsors paying via gifted subs sure sounds awful to me,” commented itmeJP. Given the system is currently only in a testing phase, it remains to be seen just how far it gets in its current setup. Though, it is pretty clear that streamers aren’t too pleased with how it’s looking, especially as Kick is incentivizing people to switch platforms with greater sub splits.

Twitch under fire for using banned streamer to promote Fortnite section TwitchFollowing their massive brand revamp, Twitch used a variety of ways to promote their new design, including an old clip of banned streamer Andy ‘Mexican Andy’ Martin. The streaming website is currently undergoing a major overhaul of its user interface, based around a color-swap, as well as personalization options for the platform’s major stars. Twitch has used a handful of big names, from Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys, to Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani and Annemunition, as the face of the swap. One interesting choice that appeared on their new info page, however, was banned former star Mexican Andy. The controversial IRL streamer, who was formerly part of Paul ‘ICE POSEIDON’ Denino’s now-defunct CX Network, has been unable to stream on Twitch’s website for nearly two years, and long since made the switch to full-time broadcasting on YouTube. Read more: Tfue reveals return date to Twitch, YouTube – League of Legends, TheSushiDragon in Just Chatting, and more. For Mexican Andy, his unplanned return was as much as shock to him as everyone else that was browsing the new information page. “I just woke up from being drunk and all I gotta say is Wtf LMAOO,” he commented on Twitter after seeing the clip splashed across Twitch’s promotional website. I just woke up from being drunk and all I gotta say is Wtf LMAOO https://t.co/yitIJEs9lV — Mexican Andy :house: (@MexicanAndySZN) September 26, 2019 Perhaps even worse for Twitch, the original clip of Mexican Andy’s humorous celebrations was first streamed on YouTube due to his ban, and was subsequently re-uploaded on Twitch. Since the revelation that the clip was of a perma-banned member of the Twitch community, the streaming giant has removed the footage from their website, temporarily duplicating LoL’s 2016 World Championship highlight video in Fortnite’s place for now. Mexican Andy’s time with the broadcasting platform was dogged with TOS strikes. The IRL personality was hit with a series of bans since January 2017, including a notorious one less than 24 hours after announcing he had received an invitation to attend that year’s TwitchCon. He has since migrated to a new YouTube channel, where he produces semi-regular videos and broadcasts on the video platform. His channel boasts 43.7K subscribers. This isn’t the first time Martin has returned to the spotlight in 2019 either. In March, he recorded footage of more than 50 Mexican migrants attempting to cross the US border, which was later picked up by broadcaster ABC News 10. It is unclear whether Andy will ever be allowed to return from his Twitch exile, but if the speed of their removal of his clip is any indication, it may not be anytime soon.

Twitch uphold ban against TF Blade for racial slur after streamer claims he was misheard TF Blade / YouTubeUpdate, April 25 – 9:17AM EST: Team Liquid CEO Steve Arhancet says the team reached out to Twitch to remove the ban and get an apology. I’ve listened to the clip with TFBlade over 20 times now, it’s clear to me he’s saying idiots. We are reaching out to twitch to remove the ban and seek an apology for the misunderstanding. If this happens, we hope TFBlade accepts and we all move on. — Steve Arhancet (@LiQuiD112) April 24, 2019 Update, April 24 – 6:45AM EST: TF Blade has now had the suspension reduced from 30 days to seven days, as Twitch uphold their belief that he used the n-word, whereas he claims he used the word ‘idiot’. Twitch streamer ‘TFBlade’ received a 30-day ban from the platform for reportedly saying the “n-word”, leading to an outcry of confusion. Twitch has strict community guidelines in place, and can enforce bans of varying lengths, depending on past breaches or the severity of the incident, but on this occasion, the streamer argues that they were misheard entirely, leading to their ban. TF Blade, a popular League of Legends player signed to Team Liquid, was streaming on Twitch when he suddenly received a ban for supposedly saying the “n-word,” something he doesn’t agree with. TF Blade said he was banned for something he didn’t do Twitch bans can strike without warning and can actually happen while you are live. Apparently, Blade’s account was suspended for 30 days without warning, and his appeal against the ban was unsuccessful, although the suspension was reduced to seven days. I actually just got suspended on twitch for something I never said but twitch missheard and assumed I did. LMAO — TF Blade (@tfblade) April 23, 2019 Did he say the n-word? The clip which Twitch is suspending Blade for has caused debate. While some listeners believe they can hear the racial slur, others, including Blade himself, contest that he actually just used the word ‘idiots’. Generally, people are siding with Blade, and arguing that although his accent and slight mumble make it difficult, it certainly sounds more like ‘idiots’ than any slur. There is an audible -ts sound at the end of the phrase. Nevertheless, Twitch concluded he uttered a racial slur and he received a 30-day ban for it. Update, April 24 – 6:45AM EST: TF Blade’s ban has been reduced to seven days, after an otherwise unsuccessful appeal. TF Blade shared the correspondence he had with Twitch, which claims that the review team ‘objectively’ heard the n-word being used. 800They are literally going to just ruin my reputation on a mistake that is on their side, this is truly unfair. All the sponsors will look at this without the full context and take the wrong point. I am seriously frustrated with this. — TF Blade (@tfblade) April 24, 2019 League of Legends has a hero that could easily be mistaken for sounding like the “n-word” Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first case of a League of Legends player being misheard while playing the game. Back in March, KEEMSTAR posted a video to Twitter saying Pokimane said the “N-word” but this is something she disputed. “I said “this Anivia” ([sounded] like “this nivia”), aka a champion in League of Legends,” she tweeted. i said “”this anivia”” (shounded like “”this nivia””), aka a champion in league of legends. smh when u found out keem is a fake gamer :pensive: on the real, stop baiting likes by spreading lies. — pokimane (@pokimanelol) March 4, 2019 Anivia is a hero in League of Legends and no punishment came to Pokimane as a result of that tweet.

Twitch under fire for labeling VTubers as AI: “It’s really insulting” Twitch: NyannersTwitch has come under fire after a misguided tweet celebrating the achievements of VTubers in 2022 compared the virtual creators to artificial intelligence (AI), with many top talents labeling the wording as “insulting” and ignorant of the medium. VTubing has taken off on Twitch, cracking into the top five tags on the platform in 2022. To show their respect for the virtual medium’s growth across the year, they put together a little video highlighting top creators and their work. The 27-second clip included snippets of the platform’s top VTubers, including VShojo’s Nyanners and Silvervale, Streamy winner CodeMiko, and independent talent Uguubear. However the caption attached to the tweet has riled up VTubers, with the platform comparing the real creators behind the avatars to artificial intelligence. “The VTuber tag brought both avatars and viewers together in one great space, with VTubers growing and creating AI like never before,” it read. “Oh, and some amazing characters and personalities came along with it.” Many top VTubers on Twitch said the remark about VTubers “creating AI” was completely misrepresentative of the medium as a whole and showed ignorance on the platform’s side. “Twitch I appreciate the love, but respectfully VTubing has nothing to do with AI at all,” VShojo Business Development Manager ‘Tomathin’ wrote in reply. “We don’t create AI and we aren’t AI,” Techy continued. “We’re real time animated characters. We’re real people.” “My character is a rogue artificial intelligence but I’m not related to any IRL AI stuff,” girl_dm_ added. Some poked fun at the fact the tweet sounded like it was written by an AI itself: “Funny how it sounds like an AI with a vague understanding of VTubing wrote this,” Lord Aethelstan said. “Nice try buddy.” The tweet, which went live on December 23 and has been viewed 1.6 million times, still remains live at the time of publishing. There are more than 3,000 quote tweets and replies criticizing Twitch’s wording as diminishing the work of one of its biggest user bases. While it’s recognition for the space as a whole, VTubers just want to be accepted and acknowledged properly for their work, rather than have their achievements reduced to AI. “AI art is hurting not just VTubers, but a lot of the talented artists that create and work with VTubers, so it’s really insulting and diminishing to mention it like this,” Tomathin said. “Models take months of work from different people to act specific ways and do specific things for the personality behind it. If VTubers are AI because we use a software that has machine learning to track the face then I think that’s a diminishment of the space.”

Twitch under fire for fixing SUBtember “bug” that saved viewers money Wikimedia Commons / Freepik.com[jwplayer Y7PB7YwV]Now that September is here, Twitch’s SUBtember event is fully underway, granting users major discounts for paid subscriptions to their favorite channels — but a certain bug in the system has earned the video platform some major pushback. SUBtember first kicked off in 2017, granting viewers whopping savings with half-off subscriptions. It’s important to note that not every SUBtember is the same; in 2018, Twitch allowed viewers to continue their gifted subscriptions for a mere 20% of their normal price point, while 2019 returned the half-price subs. However, 2020 offers a totally different ball of wax: This year, users can snag up to 30% off new subscriptions, along with other discounts at all subscription tiers. To break it down, this year’s SUBtember looks like this, with users receiving: 20% off the first month of new recurring 1-month subscriptions. ($3.99 instead of $4.99) – 25% off the first 3 months of new recurring 3-month subscriptions. ($11.23 instead of $14.97) – 30% off the first 6 months of new recurring 6-month subscriptions. ($20.96 instead of $29.94) – However, a certain bug has allowed viewers to completely cancel their subscriptions and re-subscribe using SUBtember promotional discounts — something Twitch claimed was *not* intentional. In a tweet from the Twitch Support account, the platform clarified that “SUBtember is reserved for first-time Subscriptions to channels, or Prime/Gift Subs continuing to a paid Subscription” — meaning that viewers can’t use the discount on their existing subscriptions. However, those who did use the promo code for such a purpose will be able to retain their subscription with the promotional pricing, and there will be no impact on creator earnings due to the issue. We’ve patched this bug, however we’d like to stress the following: * Users who purchased Subs via this bug will keep the promotional pricing * There is no impact to Creator revenueWe are very sorry for any confusion or disappointment this may have caused. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) September 3, 2020 That isn’t stopping viewers from lashing out at the site, with many expressing disappointment in the development and others simply calling this year’s SUBtember “useless.” “Why?” one streamer asked. “This SUBtember is almost useless to us. Streamers are growing engaged, long-term communities and relationships. Why doesn’t Subtember support these types of viewers vs. solely new ones?” Why? This Subtember is almost useless to us. Streamers are growing engaged, long-term communities and relationships. Why doesn’t Subtember support these types of viewers vs. solely new ones? Theres such little benefit here. You could have done better. — ashnichrist (@ashnichrist) September 3, 2020 “I think it would be good to revert it,” another chimed in. “As a platform, you say you want to promote the community — why not have SUBtember promote the community for both new and old subs?” I think it would be good to revert it. As a platform, you say you want to promote the community– why not have SUBtember promote the community for both new and old subs? It’s still a new commitment for everyone as not everyone can guarantee their subs every month. — quqco (@quqco) September 3, 2020 Despite Twitch’s apologies, it doesn’t look like users’ outrage around the “bug” isn’t dying down anytime soon — but luckily, those who took advantage of the glitch will get to keep their discounted subscriptions.

Twitch responds to “Womxn’s” History Month controversy TwitchTwitch came under fire for an attempted celebration of Women’s History Month while using the controversial “Womxn” label. The Amazon-owned streaming platform has since reversed this decision following a wave of backlash and will continue forward with “Women” in their celebration. On March 1, Twitch tweeted a video and shared a blog post stating “March is Womxn’s History Month” and asked its users to join in by celebrating “womxn” content creators and their communities. It didn’t take long for Twitch to come under fire for their choice of words in this announcement. Mere hours after the “Womxn’s” History Month post caught fire, the decision has now been upturned. “While we originally wanted to use a word that acknowledges the shortcoming of gender-binary language, we will be using the spelling “women” moving forward,” Twitch followed up. We want to assure you that we have, and will continue to, work with the LGBTQIA+ community. We’re still learning. Our good intentions don’t always equate to positive impact, but we’re committed to growing from these experiences, doing better, and ensuring we’re inclusive to all. — Twitch (@Twitch) March 2, 2021 “We want to assure you that we have, and will continue to, work with the LGBTQIA+ community. We’re still learning.” The word “womxn” was used in place of “women” in an attempt to be more inclusive to transgender and non-binary individuals, but according to many, it was doing more harm than good. “Womxn” even trended on Twitter briefly, as many users took to the social media platform to air their grievances with the term. Many took issue with Twitch’s wording, including some with large followings such as GameStop TV host Melonie Mac who wrote, “I’m all on board for appreciating women, but the womxn spelling is so weird to me and I don’t identify with it at all.” “I don’t get how womxn is more inclusive than women. Trans women ARE women, so if anything, womxn is bordering on transphobic. Unless I’m misunderstanding something here,” she further added. Others echoed Mac’s statement, and remarked, “With womxn you’re just separating them more, you’re not being inclusive, you’re excluding them from women.” I don’t get how womxn is more inclusive than women. Trans women ARE women, so if anything womxn is bordering on transphobic. Unless I’m misunderstanding something here. — Melonie Mac ✝️🎮🖤 (@MelonieMac) March 1, 2021 “Womxn” is not a real f**king word. It was literally created by T*RFs to invalidate trans people,” another user wrote. “Please, just call us women. Hell, I’d rather be called a literal slur than “womxn”.” “”Womxn”” is not a real fucking word. It was literally created by T*RFs to invalidate trans people. Please, just call us women. Hell, I’d rather be called a literal slur than “”womxn””. https://t.co/d726dig1fs — caelestis 🏳️⚧️ (@neoncaelestis) March 1, 2021 Streamer Cohh Carnage said that while he believes Twitch had good intentions, they took things too far by changing women to womxn. “The motive is solid. The direction is good. Take the tweet down, replace womxn with women and pop it back up. Sometimes overly inclusive can lead to exclusive,” he suggested. Quick suggestion… The motive is solid. The direction is good. Take the tweet down, replace womxn with women and pop it back up. Sometimes overly inclusive can lead to exclusive. — Cohh Carnage (@CohhCarnage) March 1, 2021 At the time of writing, Twitch’s original blog post is still live with the term “Womxn” on full display.

Twitch under fire for banning Loserfruit emote for “bullying” Instagram/LoserfruitTwitch streamer Loserfruit is the latest to have one of her emotes banned as the Amazon-owned platform continues to crack down on potential emote abuse. Numerous Twitch streamers have had their own specialized emotes banned by the site in recent months with a common trend beginning to emerge. In March, ‘Chica’ had her seemingly innocent chicken emote removed from the site, because it featured the cartoon critter making an “L” sign above its head. Now, a similar fate has befallen Loserfruit, who had an emote of a cartoon version of herself holding up the same “L” – and the streamer seems worried that her username could be on the chopping block next. Loserfruit emote banned on Twitch for “inciting abuse” In a post on Twitter, Loserfruit revealed that her emote had been removed and included a screenshot from Twitch explaining their reasoning. According to Twitch, the “fruitLoser” emote was disallowed because it could result in “targeted insults, bullying and threatening or inciting abuse.” “Wonder when they gonna come for my username,” the Australian Twitch star pondered. In the comments, many defended the emote and noted that anyone can just go into someone else’s chat and spam “L.” Twitch is really going all out collecting L’s lately. — Paul Smith (@ebroglio8) April 14, 2023 Unless they also plan on banning the letter L I don’t see what this achieves. Anyone who wanted to “bully” can just put an L in chat instead of the emote and achieve the same thing. “Bruh that’s literally just an emote of you,” someone else commented. “It’s the woke world everyone asked for, isn’t it? If a single person doesn’t like something, it instantly gets banned,” said another. Bruh that’s literally just an emote of you — NinjaBoiii (@NinjaBoiii39) April 14, 2023 Even more it’s deadass just your name backwards 💀 Late last month, a former Twitch employee explained the reasoning behind emote removals, stating that the platform will judge emotes based on how viewers could potentially misuse them. Regardless, users have raised interesting points about the letter L, in general, having the same effect as an emote if misused, but Twitch hasn’t banned the letter from chats. In the meantime, users not happy with Twitch’s strict moderation have plenty of other options to choose from with sites like Kick offering streamers more freedom to post what they want.

Twitch under fire for deleting body painter’s channel without warning Twitter: forkgirlcosplayBody painting Twitch streamer ForkGirl has revealed her dismay after her channel was apparently deleted without warning on June 5. Body painting has been a contentious topic on Twitch for some time, but is generally accepted as an artistic venture that has attracted thousands of fans to the most skilled and popular streamers. ForkGirl is one such streamer, who has had her run-ins with the platform in the past. She was banned indefinitely in February, which followed a previous ban in June 2019. Although body painting is permitted, as has been expressly laid out by Twitch, there are strict rules about what and how much of the body must be covered. On June 5, ForkGirl tweeted, “I woke up this morning to my Twitch account deleted, with no email or communication from Twitch.” She also shared images of her last two paints done on stream, to show that they did not breach community guidelines. I woke up this morning to my Twitch account deleted, with no email or communication from Twitch. These are my past two paints. I don’t even know what to say or do anymore. pic.twitter.com/QcInICyh4j — forkgirl (@ForkgirlCosplay) June 5, 2020 It is unclear whether Twitch has banned the account, although typically streamers are notified of suspensions through email, usually before action is even taken. Although the platform does not share the exact moment that causes bans, the notification usually cites a specific guideline that was violated. In this case, ForkGirl claims there was no email communication whatsoever. It’s possible that due to the previous bans, another alleged infraction would have prompted the outright deletion of her channel. A number of fans and followers were angered by Twitch’s decision. Fellow streamer Djari was among those critical of the platform. Another felt that Twitch had been targeting ForkGirl “in particular”, and reminded Twitch of their request to be held accountable for their moderation decisions. I don’t get why they keep doing this to you in particular ? @twitch @TwitchSupport what happened to “hold us accountable” ? — Essradi (@Essradi) June 5, 2020 ForkGirl says she ensures she stays within the boundaries set by the guidelines. After her previous ban in February, she wrote “My chest isn’t on stream until it has pasties, multiple layers of liquid latex, and chest painted.” The platform says it always takes context into consideration for all possible violations, with body painting being one primary example of a context that could mitigate certain behaviors that are otherwise not permitted. Twitch does not comment on community guideline violations to respect the privacy of users.

Twitch under fire after banning streamer for “fraudulent activity” and withholding payments Twitter: NBDxWilliams/TwitchTwitch has come under fire after banning a streamer for “fraudulent activity” and withholding payments from subscribers. Getting partnered on Twitch can be an arduous task, with streamers putting in hours upon hours of work to get a subscriber button on their channel and in turn being able to make money. However, that can all be taken away as quickly if the livestreaming platform finds you within violation of their rules. That unfortunate situation landed upon iRacing streamer Craig Williams – despite the fact that he wasn’t set out to break any rules or guidelines. On July 29, Williams, who runs the popular Craig’s Setup Shop for iRacing, was struck down by Twitch after amassing around 1300 subscribers. While he isn’t an everyday streamer, instead streaming around once a week, Williams uses the subscriptions to give fans access to his in-game set-up shop where he has car tune-ups for a wide variety of races. 1/2 @TwitchSupport @Twitch @AmazonUK @RLewisReports .. Twitch you just banned someone who was using your platform to run a business on the grounds that im a fraud i have 1300 subs and stream once a week, you know one of my sub perks was to @craigsetupshop on @iRacing — Craig Williams (@NBDxWilliams) July 29, 2019 He took issue with the fact that nobody had investigated him prior to being struck down with a ban, was labeled as fraudulent activity from the get-go, and received pretty poor communication from Twitch. “No research was given into what I did, no questions were asked,” he tweeted. “From my first email you did nothing to help, you just assumed I was being a fraud. 1300 subscribers and 300+ of that number used NONE PRIME accounts.” 2/2 no research was given into what i did, no questions where asked, from my first email you did nothing to help, you just assumed i was being a fraud, 1300 subscribers and 300+ of that number used NONE PRIME accounts. btw, most professional email iv’e ever recieved pic.twitter.com/bwPaNbDJow — Craig Williams (@NBDxWilliams) July 29, 2019 However, the streamer offered up a slightly positive update to the situation a few hours later, noting that his indefinite suspension had been removed – even though he still hadn’t received his owed payments. He posted: “Twitch have removed the ban from my account but I’ve received no email. Hopefully with all the support from you guys they’ve got people looking into it and hopefully some news comes my way soon, I cannot thank each and every single one of you enough > Onto the update, @Twitch have removed the ban from my account but I’ve received no email. hopefully with all the support from you guys they’ve got people looking into it and hopefully some news comes my way soon, I cannot thank each and every single one of you enough > — Craig Williams (@NBDxWilliams) July 29, 2019 Despite that, it appeared as if the damage was already done to Twitch regarding the situation, as some personalities piled on with criticism. Senior Vice President of Immortals Tomi ‘lurppis’ Kovanen suggested that whichever member of the support sent the “fraudulent activity” email to Williams would be fired by the livestreaming company. Zero chance this is sent by a Twitch employee. To clarify, what I mean by that, is that if he at the time of sending was a Twitch employee, he surely no longer is after this was posted hours ago. https://t.co/c6XelvlzdU — Tomi (@tomi) July 29, 2019 Update: July 31, 5:47AM EST: Williams has no confirmed that Twitch has fully reinstated his channel and his revenue from the stream will in fact be paid out. 1/2 Important announcement, WE DID IT REDDIT!!, I received an email today from Twitch that after a full investigation I’ve been fully reinstated, all payouts will be sent all bans removed. — Craig Williams (@NBDxWilliams) July 30, 2019 Last updated: July 30, 5:47 AM EST.

Twitch under fire after official ‘Food’ Channel shows joint rolling on girl’s ass Twitch / FoodTwitch’s official “Food” channel partnered with ‘cannabis enthusiasts’ PRØHBTD, but the content provided by the company has prompted scrutiny online. In one segment, two women are seen to be rolling a joint, as one of them uses the other’s back and behind to help hold everything in place. The clip, live streamed on the official Twitch ‘Food’ channel on January 4, was quickly shared to Reddit, as commenters suggested it was possibly in breach of Twitch’s own terms of service and community guidelines. Twitch has faced criticism already in January, after a streamer who allegedly assaulted his pregnant wife on stream was allowed to return to the platform – Twitch later permanently removed the channel. Another streamer claimed to have accidentally streamed topless after not realizing her camera was still broadcasting, receiving a three day suspension, which some felt was too lenient. However, in this instance Twitch operates the channel in question, so the broadcasting of this content (see below) would be an internal issue between Twitch and the partner, PRØHBTD. Twitter users responded to the new content on the official Food channel very negatively, calling it ‘vapid’, and were perplexed at the channel being marked as ‘Family Freindly’. Others called it a “slap in the face” to fans of the traditional content on ‘Food’. Thanks, Scwedy! I think a lot of people are complaining because Food has had the “family friendly” tag for a while, and the current content is definitely not. We love Julia and Walter and change will always be met with criticism, but this show in particular is a big change. — Ryan Dougherty (@RyanEDough) January 5, 2019 Not my fave show but they could have done 2 simple changes to avoid so many complaints: 1: remove the ‘family friendly’ tab 2: make it an ’18+’ content show you have to click the link during this show’s run. Far from the worst thing I’ve seen on Twitch, but sloppily implemented.— Jack Duluoz (@dharmaduke) January 5, 2019 I live in Oregon and it’s all legal here. I don’t care, I don’t want it pushed in my face from anywhere. My kids don’t watch twitch, but I would definitely say that the channel needs to lose it’s “Family Friendly” tag. Just like any channel featuring alcohol or cigarettes would. — Derpy (@DerpyAngel_) January 5, 2019 There is still a dedicated but small community of regulars that visit /food and loved that it was a place to chat about food and learn from true masters like Jacques. The recent change feels like a slap in the face to those people. Twitch isn’t TV. Build and nurture a community. — Sentient_Pickle (@Sentient_Pickle) January 5, 2019 Some users were surprised to discover that the Food channel was an official Twitch channel, with this kind of ‘boundary pushing’ content typically consigned to lesser known channels. Out of context, the clip is certainly bizarre, but even given the context, it appears odd that this kind of content would be streamed from an official Twitch channel.

Twitch under fire as streamers demand firmer response to ‘hate raid’ harassment Twitch.tvOver a week after #TwitchDoBetter started trending, Twitch is under more scrutiny as streamers demand firmer action against hate raid harassment. Twitch’s TOS condemn any “hateful conduct” on their platform, which specifies anything that includes discrimination based on ‘race, ethnicity, and color.’ Unfortunately, bigots and follow bots do still operate on there, and an unknown user has been creating hundreds of accounts to harass marginalized streamers with racist chat spam. More than a week after the creation of #TwitchDoBetter on Twitter, by activist and streamer RekItRaven, Twitch has only publicly responded once with a series of tweets announcing plans for later in the year. Following the reveal of plans for channel-level ban evasion detection and account verification improvements, that was the last we heard from company chiefs regarding issues of increased harassment on the platform. Those affected have continued on with supporting each other as well as creating another Twitter hashtag, #SubOffTwitch, hoping that if supporters take their money off of the Amazon-owned platform, it might lead to another response. Along with #TwitchDoBetter and #SubOffTwitch being used to bring attention to the issue, streamers have also created a petition and a hate raid response group under the Twitter handle @EndHateRaids Twitch under scrutiny Since Twitch’s reply regarding ban detection and account verification improvements, those affected haven’t heard anything else. On August 18, Twitch Support released a tweet announcing new VOD and clip settings – which was met with replies asking about the response to hate raids and what they were going to do to stop the attacks on streamers of all kinds. https://twitter.com/SirKatelyn/status/1428100605633974273?s=20 Unfortunately for those affected, Twitch continued the day ignoring any questions regarding the attacks, while responding to replies regarding the VOD and clip topic at hand. The lack of action has also left social media users in an uproar, including the #TwitchDoBetter creator citing “enough is enough”. I’m back today and ready to keep pushing@Twitch has once again been RADIO silent even though their platform has become PLAGUED with bots and hateful rhetoric. The vulnerability they “”fixed”” hasn’t done anything to actually fix it. We Need MORE #TwitchDoBetter Enough is enough— Raven’s Not Here. (@RavenousTales_) August 19, 2021 iamBrandon aldo added: “This is exactly why black folks were calling for accountability of people who screamed ‘support black creators’ last year and obviously not saying anything now.” We went from a year of “support black creator, support black voices” to being pushed to the wrist side as targeted hate raids happen on the rise. Ironic — iamBrandon 🔜 Dreamhack Dallas (@iamBrandonTV) August 18, 2021 What are ‘hate raids?’ Unfortunately, hate raids are nothing new to the live streaming platform. They consist of mass-created bot accounts spamming racial and homophobic slurs directed at some creators while live streaming. These often derail the stream and ruin a creator’s mood, often leading to them ending the stream due to verbal attacks. While there are precautions streamers can have in place for the platform’s built-in raid system like turning raids off and turning on follower-only chat, these pointed attacks often bypass these precautions, as seen here.

Twitch unbans NBA pro Meyers Leonard after anti-Semitic controversy Instagram: Meyers LeonardStreaming platform Twitch has unbanned NBA pro and former FaZe Clan investor Meyers Leonard just a week after sponsors cut ties with the Miami Heat player over anti-Semitic comments made on broadcast. Meyers Leonard was banned on March 9 after the 29-year-old power forward made anti-Semitic comments during a Warzone Twitch stream. While there were questions about whether the ban was permanent, those have been answered: Twitch has unbanned the star after a week. ✅ Twitch Partner “”meyersleonard”” (@MeyersLeonard) has been unbanned after 1 week, 32 minutes and 19 seconds! ✅https://t.co/enY5whHYZ1#twitch #unban #partner #twitchpartner 💕 — StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) March 17, 2021 The NBA pro got frustrated while playing alongside notable names like Mason ‘Symfuhny’ Lanier and Tyler ‘TeePee’ Polchow before using the slurs. Just minutes later, he received a phone call, reportedly from his wife, and swiftly ended his stream. Within hours, FaZe Clan had cut ties with the investor, and sponsors like Origin PC and SCUF Gaming also distanced themselves. The unbanning means the NBA pro is free to stream on the platform again. However, the sponsors are unlikely to partner up with the star after the controversy. Leonard has issued an apology over using the slurs, and has been placed on indefinite leave from the Miami Heat squad. “While I didn’t know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewis community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong,” he said on March 9. “I promise to do better and know that my future actions will be more powerful than my use of this word.” Twitch is yet to issue a public comment on Leonard’s unbanning. The platform typically doesn’t issue statements on individual suspensions.

Twitch under fire after introducing ‘intrusive’ mid-stream ads ShutterstockTwitch is facing an enormous wave of backlash from the most popular content creators to even the smallest viewers after introducing new mid-stream ads that cannot be controlled. Video advertisements on Twitch were previously restricted to pre-rolls, and ads manually triggered by streamers. However, that’s all changed thanks to the latest update. In their so-called “experiment” on September 14, the Amazon-owned platform is testing the ability to automatically run ads at any point through a broadcast. “Starting today, we’ll be testing automated mid-roll ads for some viewers,” the Twitch Support account tweeted. “Some viewers may begin to notice that they are receiving ads during streams that others in a channel aren’t receiving.” This means that a video advertisement could pop up at a crucial moment without any input from the streamer. Viewers could miss game-winning highlights, hilarious fails, and everything in between based on the new change. It didn’t take long before the most popular content creators lashed back at the ‘intrusive’ update. 🔬 Starting today, we’ll be testing automated mid-roll ads for some viewers. These ads will directly support the Creator and won’t run if the viewer has had an ad break in that channel recently. Your feedback is welcomed to help shape this feature! — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) September 14, 2020 “Like pre-rolls, these are ads triggered by Twitch, not by the creator,” a blog post soon doubled down. At any point throughout any stream from an affiliate or partnered content creator, select viewers could be pulled out of the action. “Really feel like this will drive our audience OFF of our channels,” ChilledChaos replied. “Bad change. Creators want control. Don’t do this.” “How do I know if this is happening to my channel and can I please opt out,” Timthetatman followed up, supported by the likes of NICKMERCS and plenty others. Really feel like this will drive our audience OFF of our channels. Creators already keep their eye on fluctuating viewer counts, now we have to factor in “twitch ran an automatic midroll” for why the audience may be tuning out? Bad change. Creators want control. Don’t do this. — Chilled Chaos (@ChilledChaos) September 15, 2020 “If you want to incentivize streamers to run ads, the worst way to do it is punishing their viewers by forcing ads during potentially awesome live moments on the stream,” Asmongold chimed in. The experimental feature was met with near-universal criticism just hours after its announcement. As a result, Twitch was quick to face the backlash and explain that this change is purely an ‘experiment’ for the time being. “For what it’s worth, this *is* the test,” they said. “We will be monitoring the data from this experiment coupled with your feedback to improve and provide a better experience over time. If you want to incentivize streamers to run ads, the worst way to do it is punishing their viewers by forcing ads during potentially awesome live moments on the stream Increase ad-free viewtime for running a midroll if you want more streamers to run midrolls — Zack (@Asmongold) September 15, 2020 Given the overwhelming backlash, perhaps it’ll force Twitch’s hand into reverting the experiment. There’s no telling how long the feature will be live for before that decision is made, however. In the meantime, if you’re not subscribed to a channel, expect to have ads interrupt the viewing experience without warning.

Twitch unbans controversial hot tub streamer eight months after removing account Instagram: ExohydraXTwitch has gone on a wild ride with bans, unbans, warnings and scams all related to the hot tub meta in mid-2021. Adding more confusion into the mix, the streaming giant has just undone an 8-month-old ban on hot tub streamer “ExoHydraX.” Trying to read the mind of Twitch mods is clearly a wasted effort. The company has caught attention before for inconsistency with the application of its Terms of Service (ToS). Now, doubling back on a decision from 8 months prior, Twitch has unbanned ExoHydraX, a streamer and OnlyFans model caught up in the middle of the fallout from the hot tub meta from mid-2o21. ExoHydraX has had a particularly rocky relationship with the platform, being banned prior, and calling the company out in a public manner over perceived racism. ✅ Twitch Partner “”ExoHydraX”” (@ExoHydraX) has been unbanned after 8 months, 2 days and 23 hours! ✅https://t.co/USHvD4seIB#twitch #unban #partner #twitchpartner 1⃣ — StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) April 4, 2022 In a response to these bans, she told Dexerto at the time “if you’re curvier than the average thin streamer you’re seen as more sexual even though both streamers could be wearing and doing the same thing.” The decision is particularly eye-catching for the peculiarity of the time frame. Undoing the ban more than half a year later has certainly raised some eyebrows. Tweets in reply to the announcement have caught the general consensus of confusion accurately. “I’ve never seen an 8-month ban” tweeted ‘SecondCITE’. With her last ban being appealed and overturned within a matter of days, this could potentially be the same thing, just over a longer period of time. When asked why she thought she’d been banned ExoHydraX said “I’m not sure, I went off screen for 15 mins and came back to being banned. that stream was actually a pretty chilled stream tbh, one of my calmest hot tub streams.” https://twitter.com/ExoHydraX/status/1511117743457771523 Following on from the announcement that she had been unbanned from the platform, ExoHydraX was keen to make it clear she wouldn’t be returning to the hot tub stream scene, calling the “thot livestream grind” a “thing of the past” Overall, a confusing mix of events, with Twitch proving yet again that their ban process is unclear at best..

Twitch unbans Forsen after indefinite suspension for innappropriate GIF Viagame / TwitchPopular streamer Sebastian ‘Forsen’ Fors has been unbanned from Twitch. He was handed an “indefinite” suspension in November for showing a GIF of a horse, sent by a viewer, which the platform deemed inappropriate. As it was not Forsen’s first suspension, but his third, Twitch’s policy on repeat violations led them to dealing him an indefinite ban, rather than a set time, as is more common. However, there was backlash against Twitch for a number of reasons; fans felt they had not taken context into consideration (Forsen was unaware of the content before showing it, and quickly removed it from view when he realized), and argued it was a harsher punishment than other similar or even worse violations by other streamers. Many brought up the infamous moment when Pokimane accidentally showing inappropriate content also sent by a viewer, and was not given a suspension at all, but rather only a warning. Regardless, the ban on Forsen’s account has now been lifted after exactly a month from when it was meted out. It’s unknown whether this was always the intended length of the ban, or if the platform reduced it after consideration. Twitch never comments on community guidelines violations to protect the privacy of users. Forsen was notified that he would be unbanned just after Christmas earlier in December, and indeed, his account was reinstated on Boxing Day. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and general well wishes in dms and shit. It seems I will be unbanned slightly after christmas. Enjoy your holidays and shit! — Sebastian Fors (@Forsen) December 16, 2020 Although Forsen will be happy to have his account back, along with it’s 1.4 million followers, a one month forced break for someone of his popularity is still a serious financial hit. Having said that, notable streamers who have ‘comeback’ streams after a suspension usually enjoy a spike in viewers, thanks to the hype and/or drama surrounding their return. Read More: Tommyinnit hits huge YouTube milestone – He’ll also have a catalog of games to catch up on – his viewers will perhaps be in for some Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay. Twitch is making sweeping changes to some of their community guidelines in January 2021, mainly around their hate and harassment policies. Some of these changes have turned heads too though – check out some of the biggest ones here.

Twitch Tweets game tests just how well fans know streamers like Pokimane & xQc Pokimane/xQc/Twitch/lilboybrandonA new game called Twitch Tweets runs right in your browser and tests fans’ knowledge of the platform’s biggest streamers’ tweets. If you think you are the biggest Twitch fan, there is finally an easy way to put your knowledge to the test. Web Developer lilboybrandon shared the game they’ve been working on, Twitch Tweets, which can run directly in your browser and has a clear goal from the onset; “Guess who tweeted what. Prove that you are your favorite streamer’s biggest superfan.” Essentially, anonymous phrases pop up and players choose who they think tweeted that phrase. The further you go, the more points you accumulate. Get one of the phrases wrong and you’ll be forced to start the run all over again. Brandon shared his inspiration for the game in its dedicated Reddit post, writing “after seeing the React meta take a hit and big streamers undergo a mild(?) content drought, I’ve decided to share a small winter break project I spent the last two weeks creating.” Read More: Is getting DMCA banned the new Twitch meta? – Here are the streamers whose tweets are included: Originally there were five tweets per streamer in the game, but since release, Brandon has added an additional 24 more tweets since players have already guessed all of the tweets correctly. Some fans in the comments of the post pointed out an easy way to guess which tweets are from Twitch star xQc: he tweets almost exclusively in capital letters. Look out for caps locks tweet, as they are most certainly going to be from the former pro-Overwatch player. Brandon also added a neat feature where you can share your high score directly onto Twitter after you complete your run. Good luck on proving you are the most knowledgeable Twitch fan out there.

Twitch to shut down in South Korea due to “prohibitively expensive” costs TwitchTwitch has announced its sudden decision to cease operations in South Korea, citing “prohibitively expensive” costs as the motivation. Twitch, the renowned streaming service operated by Amazon, will shut down its services in Korea on February 27, 2024, the company has confirmed. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy explained in a detailed blog post that the platform has allegedly suffered from the “prohibitively” high costs of operating in the Korean market. And now, Twitch has made the “very difficult decision” to shut down all operations in the region. “Twitch has been operating in Korea at a significant loss,” Clancy stated in the blog. “Our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries.” Clancy notes that despite efforts to reduce costs, including experimenting with a peer-to-peer model and limiting source quality to 720p, the financial challenges have seemingly proven insurmountable. Twitch’s closure will mark a significant shift in the Korean streaming landscape, where Twitch has been a major player. “To all of our global communities, we want to make it clear that this is a unique situation,” Clancy emphasized, acknowledging the distinct challenges faced in Korea compared to other markets. With the announcement, Clancy has also assured that Twitch is committed to assisting Korean streamers in transitioning to other local livestreaming services. “We plan to help these communities find new homes — even if it’s regrettably not on Twitch,” he said. “We will work to help Twitch streamers in Korea move their communities to alternative livestreaming services in Korea.” Clancy has since addressed the affected Korean streamers directly on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying, “I just wanted to send out my thoughts to them as I am aware that this will have a real impact on them.”

Twitch TOS update bans everyone from multi-streaming on “Twitch-like” platforms Twitch/Unsplash: LinusmimietzA new update to Twitch’s Terms of Service bans everyone from multi-streaming on “Twitch-like” platforms — including non-affiliates. On June 6, 2023, Twitch revealed an update to its Branded Content guidelines that sparked quite a bit of backlash from its biggest creators and could affect charity and esports streams. But that’s not all they updated, as the Amazon-owned platform also issued several updates to their Terms of Service. One of those updates includes a new simulcasting section, that bans everyone from multi-streaming on “Twitch-like” platforms like YouTube and Kick. Twitch TOS update bans everyone from multi-streaming Back in August 2022, Twitch revealed that Partners & Affiliates were able to multi-stream on other platforms as long as they were to “short-form mobile services” like Instagram and TikTok Live. Since then, the clause has only been mentioned in the Partner & Affiliate guidelines, but as of May 31, it has been added to the Terms of Service governing the entire website. This means that all users of the platform — including non-affiliates — can no longer multi-stream to platforms like YouTube and Kick. The update to TOS has kept the same rules as the previous guidelines set for Affiliate and Partner streamers, luckily, so Twitch creators can still multi-stream to mobile platforms like Instagram and TikTok without any issue. These guidelines also do not prevent creators from streaming on other platforms separately from Twitch, meaning users can still stream on YouTube and Kick as long as they’re not also broadcasting on the purple app. We’ve reached out to Twitch to clarify the update as well and will update this article if they comment on the change. In the meantime, head over to read Twitch’s apology following the Branded Content guidelines backlash.

Twitch ties down Dr Disrespect with new multi-year contract extension G FUELDr Disrespect has committed his future to Twitch by signing a new multi-year extension to his contract, keeping him and the Champion’s Club on the platform for the foreseeable future. The popular variety streamer is one of Twitch’s biggest attractions, with thousands pouring onto his channel whenever he goes live no matter if he’s playing Call of Duty, Fortnite Battle Royale, Apex Legends, or something completely different. The Two-Time, back-to-back Blockbuster video game champion follows in the footsteps of Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys, who has also renewed her contract during the month of March, which will be two huge boosts for the Amazon-owned streaming service. Tying down the Doc, his four million followers and thousands of subscribers is a huge coup for Twitch, after seeing some of their high profile stars leave the company for rivals Mixer in recent times – taking much of their audience with them. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek have both left to stream on Mixer in the last 12 months, but fans of Dr Disrespect now know for certain that he’s going nowhere any time soon. In an official statement, Dr Disrespect declared his commitment to Twitch: “Twitch is where I built the Champions Club empire and keep entertaining the hundreds of millions of fans looking for me to dominate competition. Twitch is my home and I have made plans to stick around for a while.” Streaming to billions around the world, only on @Twitch pic.twitter.com/nwfsjDJCWj — Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) March 12, 2020 Dr Disrespect’s time on Twitch has been really successful so far, scooping the accolade of The Game Awards’ Streamer of the Year on two occasions (2017 and 2019). Not to mention, he was launched right into the mainstream with a new TV development deal and crossover with WWE – which saw The Undertaker appear on his channel. With a deal for the Doc to stick around now wrapped up, all eyes turn to see where Twitch will make their next big move in the streaming war, trying to fend off competition. Whether or not we see other top streamers tied down with exclusive contract extensions remains to be seen, but we’ll be the first to let you know when or if things are announced.

Twitch to end big streamer deals after unsustainable “bidding war” with Kick & YouTube TwitchTwitch CEO Dan Clancy says the platform is phasing out lucrative streamer deals after getting into a “bidding war” with rivals Kick and YouTube. Streamers hoping to cash in on a big contract from Twitch could soon be out of luck with YouTube also reportedly moving in a similar direction as the Amazon-owned platform. After years of Twitch dominance as the top streaming platform, Kick and YouTube made waves by signing some of the site’s biggest names to both exclusive and non-exclusive deals, leading to bidding wars for talent. As YouTube scooped up huge names like TimTheTatman and Ludwig, Kick made blockbuster deals with xQc, Amouranth, and others, but according to Twitch’s new CEO, the strategy is unsustainable. Twitch & YouTube reportedly ending ‘unsustainable’ streamer deals In an interview with Bloomberg, Twitch Chief Executive Officer Dan Clancy said the platform will be avoiding huge streamer contracts after years of offering reported seven and eight-figure deals. Clancy explained that this strategy came with some drawbacks. “[It] created this bidding war, and I don’t think that’s a sustainable business,” he said at the 2023 TwitchCon event. That’s not all. According to the report, two individuals familiar with YouTube’s strategy said the company will follow Twitch in moving away from signing talent to big deals. Meanwhile, it doesn’t appear that Kick will take the same approach, having just recently announced that NICKMERCS and rapper Tyga have joined the site. Kick may be dialing back on multi-million dollar signings slightly, however, as the Stake-backed platform implied that Dr Disrespect’s $50M contract demand was too rich and negotiations broke down. As Twitch moves away from deals, the site announced it was removing multi-stream rules and streamers can now simulcast on any streaming platform, meaning creators can broadcast on Kick and YouTube at the same time. Keep it locked to Dexerto for all the latest in streaming and entertainment.

Twitch teases silent channels and ‘Pizza Time’ categories in April Fools’ joke TwitchAs a part of an elaborate April Fools’ Day joke, Twitch teased five new ‘upcoming’ categories for their platform on social media, including Pizza Time, Silent Reading, and more. April Fools’ Day is always a special time of year for members of the gaming and streaming communities. Not because it’s a cause of celebration, but rather because it serves as a reminder to not believe everything you see. For example, Riot Games tricked League of Legends players into believing an outrageous set of patch notes. Twitch got into the groove too by announcing five new categories that were so absurd, it was clearly a joke. Today we’re excited to launch five new categories you can watch and stream to. Here’s what’s new… 🧵 1/6 — Twitch (@Twitch) April 1, 2022 Pizza Time The first category they teased was Pizza Time, and it includes anything and everything related to pizza. This includes making pizza, delivering pizza, eating pizza, and debating which pizza toppings are the best. That’s not all, though. The suggestions became increasingly more bizarre. For example, dressing as a pizza, throwing pizza on the roof like Walter White in Breaking Bad, and even playing the 1994 video game Pizza Tycoon. Introducing a supreme new category, stuffed with possibilities. 2/6 pic.twitter.com/Wri7U9WeeT — Twitch (@Twitch) April 1, 2022 Silent Reading The second category, Silent Reading, encompasses streamers silently reading everything from biographies, novels, and manga to diary entries, fortune cookies, and even The 1997 Geo Metro Service Repair Manual. Right now you are silently reading the social post announcing the new silent reading category. 3/6 pic.twitter.com/3M3xvTkf9L — Twitch (@Twitch) April 1, 2022 Character Creation The third category was actually somewhat believable. Named Character Creation, it revolves around streamers creating hilarious characters on various games, which has proven to be a popular fad on social media. Creating a new character can take hours. Becoming them can take a lifetime. So we spent five minutes creating a category for it. 4/6 pic.twitter.com/WSfRI2OK7y — Twitch (@Twitch) April 1, 2022 Chores, Odd Jobs, and Errands The fourth category, Chores, Odd Jobs, and Errands put a hilariously boring twist on regular IRL streams. Rather than showing streamers documenting their travels, it’s limited to them doing mundane tasks. If the saying “many hands make light work” is true, you’re about to save SO much time. 5/6 pic.twitter.com/Ehm5lrn4WP — Twitch (@Twitch) April 1, 2022 Literally Just Chatting Last but not least, the fifth category, Literally Just Chatting, is exactly as described. The premise of the idea is that there are no cameras, no mics, and no stream. Instead, there are only people running wild in chat. We heard you guys like chat. So we made a new category that lets you connect with your community without distracting video and audio. Just chat. Literally. 6/6 pic.twitter.com/Ij2vcCQRE7 — Twitch (@Twitch) April 1, 2022 Twitch’s April Fools’ Day joke didn’t fool too many people. It was pretty obvious given how silly the categories were. Still, it did provide a good laugh, which is ultimately what the annual custom is all about. Read More: Twitch officially shutting down desktop app – Of course, they have added some ‘different’ categories in the past, including Animals, Aquariums, & Zoos, and Pools, Hot Tubs, & Beaches. So, who knows what else they’ll introduce before April Fools’ Day rolls around again.

Twitch threatens legal action after hate raids against LGBTQIA+ streamers spike Unsplash: Caspar RubinTwitch has addressed community concern around a sharp rise in hate raids targeting LGBTQIA+ streamers on the platform. The company states they’ve banned a number of accounts involved, promising potential legal action, and advising streamers how to protect themselves. Hate raids have become a hot topic in the Twitch community over the last 12 months. While big stars like Pokimane have thrusted it into the spotlight, it’s a regular occurrence for smaller streamers who lack tools to stop it. While Twitch has implemented some changes, LGBTQIA+ streamers — especially women — have been harassed by hate raids, spiking in March. The raids have been tracked back to another streaming platform called CozyTV. The platform is stepping in though, promising to ban those harassing streamers in a March 11 statement. “Over the past 24 hours, bad actors have been coordinating off-Twitch to target women and LGBTQ+ members of our community with spammy and hateful chat messages,” the company said. Over the past 24 hours, bad actors have been coordinating off-Twitch to target women and LGBTQ+ members of our community with spammy and hateful chat messages. Hate has no place on Twitch, and we’ve identified and suspended the Twitch accounts of the individuals participating. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) March 11, 2022 “Hate has no place on Twitch, and we’ve identified and suspended the Twitch accounts of the individuals participating. Our Safety team is actively reviewing reports and suspending users in violation of our [terms of service].” Twitch isn’t just stopping at bans though. The platform is looking into legal options — like they have done in the past — to shut down targeted harassment. “Our legal team is also involved and actively investigating. We’ve taken legal action against those who’ve harassed our community in the past and continue to take these activities seriously.” CozyTV CEO Nick Fuentes has laughed off the hate raid claims: “It’s just delicious to me to see the seething, and the panic-stricken [LGBTQIA+ streamer] when there’s no moderator, no admin, no report button, no support ticket they can file.” While Twitch has promised to suspend those participating in hate raids, the platform has not outlined any potential changes to prevent them in the future. However, they have told streamers to increase their AutoMod strength, turn Followers-Only chat on, enable email and phone verification, and to only allow Raids from friends to stem the harassment.

Twitch takes aim at gambling meta by banning referral codes & links for slots, roulette TwitchTwitch is taking action against gambling streams on its platform to protect its users from potential scams and harmful content by banning referral codes/links to slots, roulettes, and more. Popular content creators like xQc and Trainwrecks have championed the gambling meta on Twitch, among others. But the platform is now barring the biggest incentive to run those streams in the first place. On August 11, Twitch released a notice to their creators telling them to clear out any content that promotes links or referral codes to services that have been propelling the gamba meta. Streams will have less than a week to purge their channels and VODs from the new rules that will soon go into effect. Twitch will decide if any further action will be warranted against gambling streams. “To prevent harm and scams created by questionable gambling services that sponsor content on Twitch, we will prohibit sharing links and/or referral codes to sites that offer slots, roulette, or dice games,” a Twitch advisory said. “We will continue to monitor gambling-related content and update our approach as needed. To give you time to remove this content from your channel, enforcement will be delayed until August 17, 2021.” Twitch did not immediately respond to Dexerto’s request for comment. This comes on the heels of debates among streamers like Pokimane, Asmongold, MoistCr1TiKaL, and more speaking out against gambling on Twitch. Some streamers, like Trainswrecks and xQc, insist their content was transparent and above water. Twitch streamers, and to a lesser extent the gambling sites they partner with, will now have much less of a reason to run those streams without the benefits from referral codes and links. While those kinds of streams won’t be outright banned, this is a direct action against the gambling meta that has been steadily growing on Twitch.

Twitch take advantage of Ninja’s channel following Mixer move L: Ninja, R: TwitchTwitch are using Tyler ‘Ninja‘ Blevins’ channel to advertise alternative Fortnite streamers following his move to rival broadcasting platform Mixer. Ninja announced on August 1 that he would be moving from Twitch to stream exclusively on the Microsoft-owned Mixer. While Ninja might not be the first streamer to sign an exclusive deal, his move away from Twitch is an unprecedented change, having been the most-followed channel on the platform with over 14 million followers. It will undoubtedly take many of Ninja’s viewers some time to adjust to his move, and in the meantime it seems Twitch want to make the most of his page. In the absence of Ninja himself, his channel’s home page now serves as an advertisement for alternative Fortnite streamers. “The Ninja you’re looking for is in another castle,” Ninja’s channel now reads, “Check out these popular live channels.” Ninja’s past broadcasts and highlight clips can still be found by viewers looking to relive past streams, but those looking for live gameplay who might be unaware of, or simply forgotten about, Ninja’s relocation are instead offered alternative streamers on Twitch. With Ninja’s departure, there’s now space on Twitch for a new top streamer on the platform, and so far it seems to be a two-horse race. As of August 5, Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek is the most-followed behind Ninja’s dormant channel at 6,781,646, but Fortnite streamer Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney is a mere 60,000 followers behind, and gaining. Tfue also holds a sizeable lead over shroud in terms of viewer hours, with over a million more hours watched of his channel in the past 30 days. With Tfue’s biggest rival Fortnite streamer having left Twitch, it seems likely that his numbers will only continue to grow. Whether Ninja’s move to Mixer proves a success for himself and the platform over the long term remains to be seen, but in the immediate wake of the news Ninja hit over 100,000 subscribers on Mixer before his first stream, albeit undoubtedly helped by a limited-time offer by Mixer for a free month of subscription. As of August 5, just a few days after Ninja’s first Mixer stream on August 2, his new channel has amassed over 700,000 followers.

Twitch takes action after 7.5M bots boost streamer followers & views TwitchTwitch is warning streamers that their viewership numbers may appear a bit smaller in the coming days after over seven million bot accounts were discovered boosting follower and viewer counts. On April 14, the Amazon-owned streaming platform revealed that it was taking action after 7.5M accounts were discovered to be in violation of the site’s TOS. According to Twitch, these accounts were created to view and follow bot, which makes some streamers appear more popular than they actually are. In a tweet, the platform explained how these accounts were detected through machine learning technology and as time goes on, it will be able to detect even more of these abuses. 🛡️ We have been monitoring the rise of fake engagement on Twitch and have identified 7.5MM+ accounts that break our TOS by follow-botting and view-botting. We are taking action on these accounts and appreciate all of the reports about this issue. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) April 14, 2021 “We engage in enforcement when necessary including pursuing legal action,” Twitch warned, suggesting that any individuals behind the botting could soon find themselves in a courtroom. “As a result of these removals, you may see sudden decreases in your follower and viewer count over the coming days,” the site added and advised any streamers who believe they have been view or follow-botted to read their help article. Follow bots have been an issue on Twitch for some time now with both big and small streamers being affected. As a result of these removals, you may see sudden decreases in your follower and viewer count over the coming days. If you believe that you were follow- or view-botted, please check out our help article. 📚 https://t.co/R82r7NA90A — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) April 14, 2021 In one instance, LosPollosTV gained a whopping 2 million followers overnight, prompting the streamer to issue a sarcastic congratulatory statement, thanking all his new “fans.” Earlier in April, AdinRoss found himself on the receiving end of 3 million new followers in a single day, as did Chance ‘Sodapoppin’ Morris back in December of 2020. Twitch advises anyone who believes they have been botted to report it and not to panic as the company states, “if you are not responsible for botting, Twitch will not take action against you.” “While being botted may be stressful and a distraction, try not to panic and carry on as you would otherwise,” the streaming site advises. “Botting can bring a lot of attention and you may be asked about your viewership. Feel free to calmly explain the situation or ignore such questions altogether.” It will be interesting to see which channels were the greatest victims of view and follow bots and how Twitch will continue to enforce these rules in the months ahead.

Amouranth warns hot tub streamers as Twitch suspends advertising on her channel Amouranth/TwitchPopular streamer Kaitlyn ‘Amouranth’ Siragusa is warning her fellow content creators after revealing that Twitch completely suspended advertising on her channel. The news comes as the hot tub ‘meta’ continues to dominate headlines across the globe, with many female streamers using their platform to splash around in pools while wearing bikinis. While Twitch themselves said they were “monitoring” the situation closely, the drama seems to have finally caught up with them, resulting in the site taking action. On May 18, the Twitch star took to Twitter to reveal that a day prior, without any warning, the Amazon-owned site indefinitely suspended advertising on her channel. This is an ALARMING precedent and serves as a stark warning that although content may not ostensibly break community guidelines or Terms of service, Twitch has complete discretion to target individual channels & partially or wholly demonetized them for — Amouranth (@Amouranth) May 18, 2021 However, in a bizarre twist, Amouranth claims that the site never informed her and she has to be the one to bring it up after contacting them. “Twitch didn’t reach out in any way whatsoever. I had to initiate the conversation after noticing, without any prior warning, all the ads revenue had disappeared from my Channel Analytics,” she explained. Siragusa went on to warn fellow streamers that they too could suffer a similar fate. “This is an ALARMING precedent and serves as a stark warning that although content may not ostensibly break community guidelines or Terms of service, Twitch has complete discretion to target individual channels.” there’s something to go by. There is no known policy for what results in a streamer being put on this blacklist. With characteristic opacity, The only thing twitch made clear is that it is unclear whether or when my account can be reinstated. — Amouranth (@Amouranth) May 18, 2021 According to the streamer, the fact that channels can be fully demonetized for being deemed “not advertiser-friendly” isn’t something she was prepared for. “This leaves open-ended the question of where the line is drawn. Many people complain about ToS being “unclear” but at least there’s something to go by,” she noted. “There is no known policy for what results in a streamer being put on this blacklist.” Furthermore, Amouranth says it’s unclear whether or when her account can be reinstated. So far, Twitch has yet to comment on the issue and it’s unclear if other streamers have also been affected. Prominent streamer and creator of the hot tub ‘meta’, xoAeriel, told Dexerto that her channel has not been demonetized yet. Dexerto has reached out to Twitch and Amouranth for comment.

Twitch suspends LeafyIsHere’s channel after YouTube ban YouTube: LeafyIsHere[jwplayer mgzBNoPb]Longtime YouTuber-turned-Twitch streamer has had his account now banned by both platforms, with Twitch revealing in a statement per esports insider Rod Breslau that they have permanently suspended his channel. While Leafy was once hailed as one of YouTube’s most notorious commentary channels, he took an extended hiatus from the platform, returning with a vengeance in 2020 to acclaim from his fans. However, he found himself faced with criticism and speculation after uploading multiple videos targeting Twitch streamer ‘Pokimane’ — and he didn’t stop, threatening to continue uploading such content until YouTube gave him the boot. YouTube finally did just that shortly thereafter, causing Leafy to find a new home on Twitch, where he continued to apparently “bait” bans by using offensive language. It seems that his behavior has finally caught up to him, as Twitch has now handed out a permanent suspension to the streamer, which was reported by Rod Breslau via Twitter. A statement given to Rod claims that Twitch had banned Leafy for “the safety of the community,” writing: “We reserve the right to suspend any account for conduct that violates our rules, or that we determine to be inappropriate, harmful, or puts our community at risk.” Twitch has suspended Leafy’s channel. a Twitch spokesperson has sent me the following statement indicating it is for the safety of the community. pic.twitter.com/N4Qqxjpyv7 — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) September 11, 2020 As the ban is permanent, it doesn’t seem that Leafy will be making his return to Twitch at all — but he is reaching out to the platform for help, claiming that he wasn’t notified of an incoming ban and arguing that a permanent suspension is a bit egregious for his “first offense.” “Wtf Bezos, just when i started having fun,” he said of the situation. “Twitch Support – is there any appealing this, was my first offense bro lmfao.” “Thought there would be a warning first or something,” he continued. “I mean it was obvious I was pushing it, but still was being somewhat mindful of TOS.” https://twitter.com/Leafy/status/1304554417723711490?s=20 Fans and critics alike are divided as to the Twitch’s surprising ruling, with many comparing it to Leafy’s last ban from YouTube, which he similarly argued was out of order due to purportedly never having received a warning.

Twitch-style BTTV emotes coming to YouTube for Valkyrae and more Instagram: Valkyae/Twitch/BTTVWith YouTubers complaining that the streaming part of the site doesn’t have the same emote culture as Twitch, one fan is hoping to bring a version of BTTV to YouTube for streamers like Valkyrae. Over the last few years, more and more streamers have been lured away from Twitch and started streaming on other platforms. YouTube has become a popular destination for many, and it’s helped the likes of 100 Thieves’Rachel ‘Valkyrae’ Hofstetter and Jack ‘Courage’ Dunlop grow exponentially, with the former becoming the most popular female streamer around. However, while new features continue to be rolled out, the Google-owned platform does have some drawbacks. Rae has complained about a lack of emote culture and the directory to help streamers grow, but one fan is trying to change that. With Twitch, you have normal Twitch emotes and add-ons like BetterTwitchTV (BTTV) and FrankerFacez that provide more. When a streamer enables these add-ons, and many do on Twitch, it adds more fun to the party. Well, Twitter user and coder Bhavita revealed that she has a YouTube version of BTTV in the works, and the testing has already had some custom Rae-themed emotes flowing in chats. The coder tweeted it at Valkyrae who seemed pretty pleased with things and the possibility of using it. “We can use this?!?” she replied, with a bunch of mindblown emojis attached. On top of the custom Valkyrae-themed emotes, Bhavita added that some of the top BTTV emotes, colorful usernames, and hiding profile photos are also being worked on for the add-on. So based on your feedback which I understood , some tweaks which I added i. Custom emotes (we could keep on adding our own raemotes here and troll & have fun) ii. Also adds top bttv emotes and twitch global emotes iii. Colorful usernames iv. Hide profile pictures&time in chat— bhavita 💻🫰 (@bhavita_) April 1, 2021 Now, will this be available for everyone? At this stage, probably not. Bhavita noted in her tweet thread that it’s currently only being worked on for Valkyrae’s channel. Of course, other streamers could hop on board and ask for their own version, which would probably prompt some other coders to try and bring a bigger, YouTube-like BTTV add-on to the streaming side of the site. Whether that happens, obviously, remains to be seen, but it’d be a big plus for former Twitch streamers who miss the emotes from their former streaming home.

Twitch surprises Pokimane, Valkyrae & more with incredible gift YouTube: Valkyrae, Pokimane / Twitch2020 has been a hectic year for just about everyone, and considering the recent Twitch drama with DMCA takedowns galore, it seems the platform has decided to throw a little love toward some of its top streamers amid the madness. It’s been a hectic few weeks on Twitch, to say the least: Many streamers have caught surprising bans in wake of recent DMCA notices plaguing the platform, causing them to delete years of clips and VODs to avoid suspension. Even top broadcasters like Pokimane — who currently boasts over 6 million followers on the site — took a break from Twitch and social media after catching heat in unnecessary drama, leaving the internet for a month. It seems that Twitch has taken notice of these hardships in some form, as former Twitch streamer Valkyrae revealed that the platform gifted her, Pokimane, xChocoBars and starsmitten an unforgettable gift in their own backyard. In a Tweet on November 13, Rae gave fans a tour of the girls’ backyard with a humorous video, revealing that Twitch had set up a veritable oasis behind their home. Twitch brought over clawfoot bathtubs for each streamer, which they filled with goodies to suit their tastes, including everything from numerous Jigglypuff plushies to cozy-looking robes and slippers. Twitch surprised the roomies and I today! @pokimanelol @xChocoBars (@starsmitten_ is out of town😭) pic.twitter.com/zK3efqMBC0 — RAE (@Valkyrae) November 13, 2020 That’s not all; they even set up a “meditation tent” adjacent to the bathtubs, which had been completely outfitted with manicure and pedicure tools — as well as a projector for movies — for the perfect evening getaway, without having to set foot on a plane. The company also constructed a quirky photo booth and picnic table for the girls, bringing over Sugar Fish sushi, coolers full of drinks, and a cake, to boot! LOOK AT WHAT TWITCH DID TO OUR BACKYARD 😭❤️ IM SO IN LOVE pic.twitter.com/oFMESlKyYe — xChocoBars (@xChocoBars) November 13, 2020 Needless to say, the streamers were tickled pink by Twitch’s unexpected show of kindness — especially considering that Valkyrae has signed with YouTube for an exclusive streaming deal. That being said, the entire setup has made the entire internet incredibly jealous and impressed, and has us wondering if we shouldn’t set a little time aside this evening for our own relaxation session. Treat yo self!

Twitch streamer’s year-long ban for a joke lifted after friend speaks to staff at TwitchCon Skumnut / TwitchTwitch streamer Skumnut has been unbanned from the platform after his friend convinced staff at TwitchCon to let him back on nearly a year later. Twitch bans have continued to impact all types of streamers, from smaller creators who get only a handful of viewers, to leading streamers with thousands of views. The reasons for bans can be for various reasons, including hateful usernames, sexually suggestive content, offensive terms said by streamers, and more. With so many creators on the leading streaming service, some smaller streamers have found it harder to get their bans unlifted over the years, even if they believe Twitch had made a mistake. This was the case for Skumnut, who was permanently banned almost a year ago after he was permanently banned for joking about kicking his friend to death. However, in a turn of events his long-awaited ban came to its ultimate end on October 24 after his friend managed to convince staff at TwitchCon to unban him. Twitch streamer finally unbanned after friend talks to staff StreamerBans confirmed the partnered streamer Skumnut had been unbanned via Twitter/X whose ban lasted 11 months and 6 days. Skumnut responded to the post: “I always come back,” and further thanked fellow streamer Matt Apocolypse for talking to Twitch staff at the event and getting his indefinite ban revoked. The streamer’s joke that caused the permanent ban involved him going into his friend’s stream and saying “I’m going to kick you to death.” The fellow creator laughed off the comment at the time and explained to his viewers that Skumnut said it because he had just finished a “kick-only” playthrough of God of War. Aside from bans, while Twitch’s CEO Dan Clancy was at TwitchCon he instead found out he had been rejected by the partnership program.

Twitch streams with 24/7 TV shows taking over amid react meta Twitch: TheSimpsonsTV_A number of channels have started cropping up on Twitch, streaming TV shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy & more 24/7, as the react meta continues to take over the platform. The react meta has been prevalent at the start of 2022, with TV shows such as Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares or Masterchef particularly beloved by Twitch streamers looking for content to react to. Ramsay has even teased joining Twitch himself, but the buck doesn’t stop with him when it comes to react content. Pokimane was banned for watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, while DisguisedToast was banned for watching episodes of anime show Death Note, though he later claimed it was staged. Now, some people are looking to capitalize on this meta by providing 24/7 streams of certain shows. The react meta is one that has been particularly divisive among streamers and viewers alike, but channels like these could be set to make streamers lives’ easier — as well as provide easy access for fans of the shows. If you search 24/7 on Twitch, you’ll find a number of channels broadcasting reruns of classic fan-favorite shows, and in various languages too. A number of programs are available to watch through these channels, including various anime shows, Family Guy, and The Simpsons (embedded below as an example). While this is obviously exciting for fans of the shows on offer, and streamers will no doubt try their luck by reacting to these channels, it’s worth noting that they don’t make the practice any more legal. Don’t be surprised to see streamers watching these channels be penalized, and the channels themselves shut down as soon as possible over DMCA concerns.

Twitch streamer’s wife makes him viral on TikTok after he gets zero viewers Twitch: GuzhutTwitch streamer ‘Guzhut’ was excited to start his new hobby, but nobody came to his first stream. When his wife, TikToker ‘thesaltyfam,’ posted a video about it, thousands of viewers came to save the day. The Amazon-owned streaming platform has been known for its lack of discoverability for newer creators for years now. So when Guzhut decided he wanted to try it out on December 27, 2021, nobody showed up to his stream. To help her husband, Guzhut‘s wife posted a video about his struggle on TikTok. Uploaded on December 27 on her profile, ‘TheSaltyFam,’ the viral video has over 11 million views and has helped her husband explode in popularity. Viral TikTok helps Guzhut explode in popularity The viral TikTok video shows Guzhut on a chair in the living room, with his phone propped up on a step ladder while capturing his gameplay from the living room television. Its reads: “He was so excited to stream on Twitch, and no one came on.” (Click here if TikTok doesn’t load) Their video quickly went viral and has amassed over 11 million views at the time of writing. With its popularity, it even gained the attention of a professional football team, the Arizona Cardinals, who said they’ll be online to play with him soon. The couple has also received quite a few compliments about how well she supports her husband’s interests. Since the video has gone viral, Guzhut’s Twitch stream has exploded in popularity. At the time of writing, the creator has gained 41.6 thousand followers on his channel in just 8 days. TheSaltyFam and Guzhut are prime examples of how well TikTok can be used to gain viral popularity, no matter what type of content you decide to upload to the app. We’ve also seen viewers help others after their video went viral, including the ‘Joe Byron guy‘ from the viral Sidetalk videos after it was revealed that he was homeless.

Twitch streamers terrified after setting off a smoke grenade indoors Twitch: PayMoneyWubbyTwitch streamers PayMoneyWubby and Alluux caused absolute chaos after they triggered a smoke grenade to go off indoors, filling the room with orange smoke and causing the pair to pause the stream. PaymoneyWubby a.k.a. Dennis Richardson is a streamer with around 400,000 followers on Twitch, and Alluux a.k.a. Alex has just over 20,000 on the platform. The pair regularly make some entertaining and sometimes bizarre content, and this section of the stream certainly fit into both categories after Dennis decided to surprise Alex with a smoke grenade. He asked her to hold her hand out and close her eyes, but it took a while for her to cooperate after he said that what he will put in her hand “might scare her,” with Alex totally unaware of what was coming. Smoke grenades are canister-type grenades that are filled with brightly colored smoke and are often used as a signaling device – however, they have also become a popular prop for photographers as a way of adding special effects in real life. Smoke grenade causes chaos live on stream Dennis placed the device in Alex’s hand after counting down and immediately triggered it, which prompted plumes of orange smoke to spill from her hand. She immediately started screaming once she heard the noise, and was even more shocked when she opened her eyes to see the bright orange. Dennis began screaming “Alex get it out of the house, get it out of the house!” at which point the two streamers escaped the orange-filled room, bringing the grenade with them. While the pair are off-screen screaming and coughing could be heard, and it wasn’t long before all of their smoke detectors started emitting a piercing beep, just adding to the chaos of the situation. Read More: Jake Paul wants to fight Floyd Mayweather – They paused the stream for about 15 minutes, and when they returned they were wearing masks – though the room was thankfully no longer orange. They explained to viewers that their house was well ventilated so it didn’t cause too many issues, and they had a great time watching the chaos-filled clip back with Alex’s brilliant facial expressions.

Twitch streamers want platform to copy YouTube sub price change Twitch/YouTubeStreamers are requesting for Twitch to copy a popular YouTube feature that allows creators to tweak the cost of their paid subscriptions and set their own price. As Twitch continues to make changes that deter their creators, the battle of the live streaming platforms continues, as more and more streamers sign exclusive deals and make their way over to YouTube Gaming. With YouTube slowly adding additions to their live streaming services, creators are only becoming more enticed to jump ship. However, that doesn’t stop others from hoping Twitch may take a page out of their competitor’s book. Now, Twitch streamers are requesting for the Amazon-owned platform to copy a specific feature that would allow creators to change the price of their paid subscription. In a tweet on May 26, streaming star Ludwig Ahgren, who made his move to YouTube from Twitch in late 2021, revealed that his new paid subscription price is just $1. “If you didn’t know, I changed my sub price to $1,” the streamer said on Twitter. The tweet has since amassed over 26k likes and caught the attention of other streamers and avid Twitch viewers. Many of which began suggesting that Twitch should copy YouTube’s feature. IF U DIDNT KNOW I CHANGED MY SUB PRICE TO $1 I HAVE TO KEEP THE $5 FOR GIFTED BUT WHY SPEND MORE $$$ FOR THE SAME THING?? SAVE UR MONEY AND THANKS 4 WATCHING pic.twitter.com/jQqnIq648T — ludwig (@LudwigAhgren) May 26, 2022 “I hope Twitch lets us change our sub prices to make them lower,” one streamer replied. “Maybe remove ads and freely let us have access to follower-only emotes then I’ll be happy,” they added. “I never realized people could set their own sub prices. I wish more people lowered it as I would end up subbing more and for longer,” said one Ludwig fan. However, others such as streamer Nikolarn aren’t hopeful that Twitch will bring the requested change. “Me patiently waiting for Twitch to allow me to set my own sub price and also me knowing it’ll never happen,” he said. With the Amazon-owned platform potentially making revenue changes in the summer that’ll do more harm than good, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see streamers being able to change their subscription price in the future. However, we can only hope that we’ll be able to sub to our favorite streamers for a dollar.

Twitch streamer’s sexually suggestive stream title gets her permabanned X/meiashesA Twitch streamer has been permanently banned after her sarcastic stream title was considered to be “unsolicited sexual advances.” Amazon-owned platform Twitch is very strict on enforcing its rules pertaining to sexual content, and as one streamer found out, sarcasm doesn’t give anyone a free pass. On September 15, Twitch streamer ‘meiashes’ posted to X revealing she had been permabanned and would need to appeal in order to gain access to her channel again. The reason? A very suggestive stream title that involved her breasts. While meiashes doesn’t believe a ban was warranted, others are siding with Twitch. Twitch streamer sparks debate after permaban for “unsolicited sexual advances” In a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, meiashes posted a screenshot of the email Twitch had sent her, revealing she had been permabanned. Under the reasoning, Twitch said that asking viewers to interact with her breasts was considered “unsolicited sexual advances.” “Targeting another person with unsolicited sexual advances, graphic and vulgar sexual comments or sending them unwanted links to sexually explicit content,” Twitch explained, noting the violation occurred in the stream title. Users were mixed on the ban with some opposing it while others felt it was deserved giving how clear Twitch’s rules are on the matter. “I was wondering what happened this the most petty sh*t I’ve seen them ban for lmfao,” wrote one supporting viewer. “What did you think would happen?” another asked. “One of the most justified bans I’ve seen,” remarked someone else. We’ll have to wait and see if Twitch decides to accept an appeal as this wouldn’t be the first time in recent months that a permaban has been revered. Notably, a Fortnite streamer who was permabanned for joking about being a child predator was allowed back days later after a successful appeal.

Twitch streamer’s stomach gives him a literal rude awakening Twitch streamer Icedshell2 woke up from a cat nap in the middle of his stream just to fiercely vomit all over the place. Icedshell2 found himself winding down from a stream that saw him slumped over at his desk at an intermission screen before he suddenly sprang back to life. However, once he found his second wind, it didn’t result in him continuing his stream but instead ended up with him throwing up all over the place. Luckily for the viewers, he was able to do it off-screen by putting up his ‘Stream Starting Soon’ screen but he was not able to mute the audio in time. Read More: Why Ninja moving to Mixer is a good thing – Despite not seeing the upchuck occur, viewers were still able to listen to it which is probably just as bad. The streamer hasn’t been banned or suspended, yet, and it’s unclear if he ever will be considering he was able to do all the vomiting away from the viewers’ eyes. For those wondering – no, Twitch does not condone throwing up on your stream, especially if it’s because you consumed too much alcohol or took too many drugs. He addressed the incident on Twitter, poking fun at it. “Well that stream was fucked,” he said in a tweet. Realistically though, it’s hard to imagine Icedshell was thinking about a ban when he woke up but was instead more focused on where the nearest trash can or toilet was. It didn’t sound like he made it that far so hopefully he was just able to avoid getting anything on his expensive electronics. Strangely enough, he has just over 500 followers, so this incident could actually help him grow in popularity. Another Twitch streamer who took over 14 years to clean his room exploded in popularity just by tidying up and now has over 3,000 followers. Twitch is a strange place and sometimes it takes something weird to get your big break.

Twitch streamers reveal big pay bump from new “ad incentive” offers TwitchMany partner and affiliate-level Twitch streamers have received improved offers for running ads in the month of September 2022, signaling an overall bump in the payout for ads per hour. Twitch started the ad incentives program in June 2022, giving some streamers improved rates of pay if they ran a certain amount of ads and streamed a certain number of hours. Recently, streamers were also offered increased revenue split from ads for running more of them. Although this was a welcome change for broadcasters, some complained that the money offered wouldn’t justify the nuisance to viewers of increased ads during their streams. However, with September’s ad incentives now rolling out, it appears that at least for some streamers, the offers are more substantial. Twitch increases ad incentive pay for streamers Although it’s not known if the pay increase is widespread and across all regions, it’s certainly the case for a number of channel owners who have posted about it on social media. Gothalion, a Destiny streamer with almost 1 million followers on Twitch, revealed that his September offer was over $20,000 for streaming 133 hours, with 3 minutes of ads per hour. And it’s not just big-name streamers with tens of thousands of viewers. Twitch partner ‘Duck’, who has just under 20,000 followers, said their new monthly ad incentive was “serious money.” Viewers notice increase in ads Of course, on the other side of the equation are the viewers, who may now be subject to more ads as they watch their favorite streamers. Some have already noticed an increase in how many ads are interrupting the content. Streamer Angelicaftw said that she would leave streams if served six “back to back” ads – to which fellow streamer Toni responded, “Twitch is actually playing streamers crazy well for once so I encourage people not to complain.” But, viewers are complaining nonetheless. ‘DisgruntldGamer’ on Twitter said the platform is “completely unwatchable” due to the ads, but isn’t mad at the creators themselves. For some streamers, they have built up a rapport with their audience that ads are a part of the stream, and some fans will even make sure to turn off ad blockers to support them. While the money on offer is great, one downside to the ad incentive program is that the ads are automatic – meaning they will run without the streamer’s control. This can be extra frustrating for viewers as they may run at a very crucial moment in the stream. No one wants the final 1v1 clutch situation spoiled by a 3-minute ad break. In another boost to streamers though, Twitch updated its rules on exclusivity in August, allowing partnered streamers to broadcast on other platforms too, with some limitations.

Twitch streamer’s set up destroyed on stream by crazed intruder girl__fighterA Russian Twitch streamer named girl__fighter fought off an intruder live on stream after they seemed to destroy her streaming set up and ended the stream altogether. Catching dangerous moments live on Twitch is a scary thing to witness, and unfortunately, it has happened quite a number of times before. Back in February 2021, streamer triciaisabirdy dealt with an intruder live during a cooking stream. Thankfully in the triciaisabirdy situation, nobody was harmed and nothing was broken as the intruder was removed from the building. While they were able to carry on streaming, the same can’t be said for Russia streamer girl__fighter, who goes by the name Victoria, as they dealt with an intruder during a live stream leading to an altercation that cut the live feed. In the scary clip, the man off-screen appears to begin destroying things in the streamer’s room, and as Victoria and her friend plead with the man to stop, he knocks over the streaming setup. It seems that the intruder was hit with mace by the standing girl, as coughing can be heard in the background. The screen froze as the camera crashed into the ground, cutting the live feed. As of now, it’s unclear why the man intruded the home, and his whereabouts since the stream was taken down are unknown. Victoria began streaming more pole dancing and stretching a few hours after the incident happened, showing that thankfully she wasn’t harmed during the incident. Victoria’s Twitch page is mostly made up of her pole dancing sessions and describes herself as a passionate pole dancer and dynamic stretcher. The streamer’s social media pages have also been made private in the aftermath of the stream, and it remains to be seen if there will be any follow-up to what happened.

Twitch streamers report bizarre emails and pictures from fan sofiehedegren, Instagram / ImSoff_, TwitterAs live streaming continues to grow in popularity as both a profession and pastime, more and more broadcasters are reporting odd interactions with overly-enthusiastic fans — one of whom has taken flirting to the next level. Many a popular Twitch streamer has, unfortunately, dealt with both in-person and online harassment, usually from fans who are vying for a potential relationship with them after watching their broadcasts. It seems that one fan has taken this kind of flirting to a whole new level, with multiple female Twitch streamers reporting interactions from a single individual with a similar MO. Partnered streamer ‘ImSoff’ uploaded a series of photos in a Tweet on April 21, showing an email and a photo attachment from a fan who was looking for more than just a shoutout. “You are very beautiful and very positive,” the fan wrote. “I want to meet you. I watch you from time to time!” The photo attached to the email showed the sender blowing a kiss to the camera and folding his hands in a heart shape, unabashedly flirting with the broadcaster — who was less than enthused by his message. “Please don’t be this person, this is to my business email zzz,” ImSoff wrote. Please don’t be this person, this is to my business email zzz pic.twitter.com/G8DFeRTVlV — sofie (@ImSoff_) April 21, 2020 However, it doesn’t seem that Soff was the only Twitch streamer to have received an email from this fan — in fact, replies to her Tweet show that several broadcasters have experienced similar interactions with the individual. “I GOT THE SAME ONE LOOOOL” streamer ‘MissBaffy’ replied, showing identical images sent to her own inbox as the ones ImSoff received. In fact, one streamer claimed she’s been receiving near-constant emails from the fan for over a year, even though she never replies to him. “That same guy has been emailing me for almost a year now, and he doesn’t stop even though I never answer,” she Tweeted. “He must have some serious issues.” That same guyhave been emailing me for almost a year now and he doesn’t stop even tho I never answer.? He must have some serious issues — Swebliss (@swebliss) April 23, 2020 Thankfully, it seems as though these streamers have banded together to address a disturbing issue that continues to take place in a community already rife with harassment and stalking.

Twitch streamers planning #ADayOffTwitch boycott amid rise of “hate raids” TwitchFollowing the unfortunate rise of “hate raids” on Twitch in recent months, streamers are planning a #ADayOffTwitch boycott on September 1st due to a lack of help. In the past few months, Twitch streamers have been targeted with “hate raids,” which are essentially hundreds of bots flooding a streamer’s chat at once with messages that go against Twitch’s hateful conduct rules. Hate raids are mainly used to target minority groups and were kicked off by attacks on LGBTQ+ streamers with a wave of homophobic and transphobic messages. These raids sparked outrage from streamers across the platform, who came together with the #TwitchDoBetter movement, as the streaming service stayed radio silent despite going all of this going against their TOS. After weeks of harassment, Twitch finally responded, assuring streamers that they’re working on solutions to combat the raids, but they can’t share every single detail of what they’re actively doing. “We’ve been building channel-level ban evasion detection and account improvements to combat this malicious behavior for months. However, as we work on solutions, bad actors work in parallel to find ways around them, which is why we can’t always share details,” they said. Yet, for some streamers, this wasn’t a good enough response. As a result, some streamers – including ‘RekItRaven‘ – banded together to start the #ADayOffTwitch boycott. The movement is an effort to be taken seriously by the platform and is asking streamers to not go live or visit the site on September 1. We are continuing the fight. Shout out to @LuciaEverblack and @ShineyPen for helping me with this!#ADayOffTwitch September 1st, don’t go live. pic.twitter.com/dU1ycC9YtM— Raven’s Not Here. (@RavenousTales_) August 20, 2021 So far the #ADayOffTwitch tweet has garnered plenty of attention with streamers from across the globe echoing the message. Plenty of others urged viewers to get involved as well and not watch any streamer on the day. “These kinds of protests make an impact when folks are in it together,” stated AnyKey. Join this protest to End Hate Raids by taking #ADayOffTwitch on 9/1. No streaming, no watching. These kinds of protests make an impact when folks are in it together. RT and ask your fav streamers (especially the non-marginalized ones) to participate by not streaming on 9/1. https://t.co/zihs6QsMzB — AnyKey (@anykeyorg) August 21, 2021 Remember folks, you don’t have to be a streamer to participate in #ADayOffTwitch As a viewer and a supporter you can participate by staying off the platform completely. If you can’t participate, that’s okay, you can still help by boosting and sharing — BurntRice (ShineyPen) 🏳️⚧️ 🇵🇭 (@ShineyPen) August 21, 2021 Previous Twitch boycotts may have been perceived as unsuccessful but streamers are determined to make a change. It remains to be seen if they’ll get their message across to some of Twitch’s biggest creators.

Twitch streamers ready to boycott over Hogwarts Legacy ads Portkey GamesTwitch streamers are planning to boycott the Amazon-owned platform after Hogwarts Legacy advertisements have appeared across the site as the game prepares to release. As we’re now into February, Hogwarts Legacy’s release is right around the corner. However, many have already shown their intentions to boycott the wizarding world due to J.K. Rowling’s association. Rowling, who is the controversial author of the Harry Potter series, has faced numerous accusations of making transphobic comments in the past — causing distaste for the new title among the gaming community. With Twitch also advertising Hogwarts Legacy across the site, streamers are now planning to boycott the Amazon-owned platform until the campaign is over. Twitch streamers boycott platform over Hogwarts Legacy ads Transgender streamer and Twitch ambassador ‘Nikatine‘ is one of many creators affected by Rowling’s alleged transphobic comments. With the platform also advertising the game, the streamer is now intending to boycott Twitch and is calling on others to do the same. “On Saturday, Feburary 4th, I was made aware of the extensive and blatant ad campaign for Hogwarts Legacy on Twitch, utilizing and interrupting streams to promote this offensive product,” she wrote in a statement on Twitter. “Hogwarts Legacy is a product ultimately funding JK Rowling, whose well-documented stance on trans people remains firmly rooted in a callous disregard for human life.” The streamer continued: “Therefore, I will not be streaming to Twitch while this ad campaign remains active. I call on every streamer to join me in taking a stance against bigotry, hatred, and those who support such views. “I call on Twitch to end this harmful relationship with Hogwarts Legacy, and continue to take steps towards providing a safe place for the trans community.” The tweet has amassed close to 60k likes at the time of writing, with many from streamers from the community showing their support for the boycott. Developers Avalanche Software have assured fans that Rowling had no part in creating the game, but was noted that they “collaborated closely” with the author’s team throughout the development. It’s also expected that Rowling will receive royalties from the Hogwarts Legacy’s sales.

Twitch streamers outraged as new DMCA warning forces them to delete clips Twitch streamers from all corners of the platform have been getting DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notifications, leading to many content creators like Mongraal, Brax, Scump, and a lot more to discover that clips/VODs from their channel have been deleted. What started as a wake-up call for anyone who’s ever played music while streaming turned into bitter confusion after emails started circulating among creators that their content was flagged by the company for DMCA implications. “It is INSANE that Twitch informs partners they deleted their content – and that there is more content in violation despite having NO identification system to find out what it is,” Former CLG CEO and Twitch streamer Devin Nash said. “Their solution to DMCA is for creators to delete their life’s work. This is pure, gross negligence.” While infractions or complaints from streamers have to do with music particularly, DMCA strikes can apply to any creative work that is copyrighted, broadcasted without a license to do so, and discovered then reported by its owner. Did not receive a DMCA email but I deleted everything off of my channel a couple months ago. Seems like that’s the only way :/ sad, wish there was a little more transparency with what’s going on — brooke (@brookeab) October 20, 2020 “Guys, I got a DMCA warning today too,” Twitch partner and Ninja’s Manager/wife, Jessica Blevins said. “I thought I deleted all my old stuff. Whoops! Honestly sucks that it wasn’t regulated before because now everyone has to delete their stuff to be safe.” “We are writing to inform you that your channel was subject to one or more of these DMCA takedown notifications, and that the content identified has been deleted,” Twitch wrote in emails to streamers, though none with the specific infractions committed. The affected streamers didn’t necessarily earn themselves an official DMCA strike, three of which gets you banned on the platform, but content is still being deleted and streamer’s now have to deal with the ambiguity of the Oct 20 emails. “Looked at a few of these DMCA emails, they don’t identify the content taken down, who sent the notification, or provide an opportunity to respond to the takedown with a counter-notification as required under the DMCA. No chance to defend yourself,” Noah Downs said, who is a lawyer at Morrison Rothman LLP that also works in the gaming space. These DMCA notices are legit and apply to your old content. I’ve received word that live takedowns may be implemented very soon – this is the beginning. Don’t play music you don’t have the rights to, and if you have questions, speak to a lawyer. — Noah Downs, Esq. (@MyLawyerFriend) October 20, 2020 This is an overall confusing situation since streamers, who have enjoyed Twitch’s presumed leniency to music being played, now have to go back and purge their channels. “I might get DMCA banned from Twitch…,” CouRage said, joking about the content still up on his channel that hasn’t been deleted since his big move to YouTube. HELP IM GETTING DMCA’D IDK WHAT IT MEANS AM I BANNED FROM TWITCH? — Michael / SONII ☀️ (@sonii) October 20, 2020 gg so I cant play literally any music anymore on stream or what? so dumb bro — Mongraal (@Mongraal) October 20, 2020 Got hit with a DMCA on twitch and no idea what it was that did it. — Lirik (@LIRIK) October 20, 2020 Got hit with that DMCA warning and I haven’t played music in months. dang. — OpTic Scump (@scump) October 20, 2020 How can Twitch streamers avoid DMCA? For the time being, Twitch’s mass deletion of clips and VODs will go unchallenged. Furthermore, the platform is asking individual streamers to scour their libraries of content for any more instances that could merit a DMCA. Twitch content creators have until 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST / 8 PM BST on Friday, October 23 to find and delete any possible infractions in their content catalogues or clips that haven’t been flagged by the platform themselves. The company will “resume the normal processing of DMCA takedowns” shortly after. The company also suggests using tools like Audible Magic, while reviewing the site’s DMCA, Community, and Music guidelines to avoid future mishaps. If you’re unsure if something falls under a DMCA’s purview, Twitch recommends to “delete all of it.” “Please note that buying music (such as a CD or mp3) or subscribing to a music streaming service typically does not grant rights to share the music on Twitch. Such a purchase or subscription grants you a personal license to access the content only for your personal and private playback,” Twitch wrote in the Music guidelines. This content was identified and deleted for you, in accordance with its obligations under the DMCA. Going forward, Clips that are identified as having copyrighted music will be deleted without penalty to help ensure you do not receive DMCA notifications from rights holders. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) October 20, 2020 Why are DMCAs happening now? There’s been inklings that something like this was bound to happen. Back in June, Twitch notified streamers of “mass DMCA claims against clips” from record labels spanning 2017-2019. From the language used, Twitch decided to hand out DMCA notifications about specific infractions instead of what they did today, but were “working to make this easier” with future implementation of management tools. Since then, Twitch has given creators the ability to delete all of their clips at once and control who can actually make clips on someone’s channel. Moreover, they’ve even provided a way to scan clips with Audible Magic while offering Soundtrack by Twitch which lets people stream with music playing in a separate audio track. “Now that these tools have been released to all creators” the company released the notifications while deleting content themselves, to get the ball rolling. It is INSANE that @Twitch informs partners they deleted their content – and that there is more content in violation despite having NO identification system to find out what it is. Their solution to DMCA is for creators to delete their life’s work. This is pure, gross negligence. pic.twitter.com/mhdXU5lEc5 — Devin (@DevinNash) October 20, 2020 To be clear, copyrighted music on Twitch has always skirted the lines of legality with royalty payments and the like, but the platform is now at a level of prominence where labels and other artists are taking notice of what’s being presented by individual streamers – and it’s not that hard to do. “Universal Music Group and Warner have invested in this company that is monitoring every stream on Twitch and they have the ability to issue live DMCAs, they just haven’t done it yet,” Downs told djWHEAT back in June. Free music for Twitch streaming For those that still want to stream with music while avoiding the potential of a DMCA warning, there are a few services to look out for. Twitch recommended services like Monstercat Gold and Soundstripe for sources of licensed music for streamers. Be warned, while huge artists like T-Pain have essentially given streamers the greenlight to use their music during a stream, music labels might still be able to issue a DMCA. For those that don’t want to be bothered by any DMCA implications, streaming without licensed music is the safest way to keep yourself clear from legal ramifications.

Twitch streamers outraged over new unban request feature Twitch[jwplayer mfcRpjb4]Dozens of Twitch streamers have criticized the Amazon-owned streaming platform after the introduction of a controversial feature that allows banned viewers to get back in contact. While the vast majority of Twitch viewers get along well, there’s the odd rotten egg that steps over the line. This is why time-outs and bans are both featured on Twitch. Moderators are able to punish viewers for bad behavior, often barring them from select channels as a whole. From rude messages in chat to pesky spam, bans are there as a safety measure to counter it all. Once banned, there was no way for these accounts to annoy or harass streamers moving forward. That was up until today, at least. Twitch revealed a new widget on Sep. 30 that allows mods to go through ‘unban requests.’ While it could prove useful for the odd occasion where an account is wrongfully banned, the announcement mainly went down like a ton of bricks. 📢 Hey Mods! We’ve added a widget in Mod View that lets you manage unban requests. Channel banned users can submit an appeal through the Chat column, which you can review and take action on, anonymously. We’ll be bringing the ability to send unban requests to mobile soon! pic.twitter.com/C79dN68YCc — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) September 30, 2020 “Channel banned users can submit an appeal through the Chat column,” the Twitch Support post explained. Through this appeal, moderators can then “review and take action.” This gives pesky accounts a second chance at doing the right thing, but it also sets the stage for even more bother. Banned accounts can continue their poor behavior through this section. As a result, many content creators were hesitant about the new feature. “I can’t wait to get harassed in my unban requests,” former Twitch staff member ‘retr0ali’ replied. Twitch soon clarified that spam won’t be permitted through the new system. Accounts can’t spam through the feature as “it is only possible to request to be unbanned once.” Despite this measure, many still wish that it was never added in the first place. “We need the ability to opt-out of this system ASAP,” Twitch streamer ‘tavi_wolf,’ demanded. “When someone is banned they’re banned for a reason, why would anybody want this feature?” ‘Alanna_Sterling’ added. When someone is banned they’re banned for a reason, why would anybody want this feature? ? no thank you — Alanna Sterling (MermaidUnicorn) (@Alanna_Sterling) October 1, 2020 This isn’t the first controversial feature Twitch has added in the past few weeks. On September 15 the streaming platform came under fire for new and intrusive ads. Perhaps with enough community backlash, the latest addition will come with the ability to opt-out. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with any further developments.

Twitch streamer’s mom horrified after racist donation message Getty Images / TwitchA Twitch streamer’s mom was left horrified after a donator left a racist message on her son’s channel, but she laid down the law for his viewers. Trolling through text-to-speech donations has been a thing on Twitch since they were introduced. Whether it’s flaming the person behind the camera or cracking a joke, text-to-speech donations can be used for amusing purposes to enhance the stream experience. However, some trolls take it too far by using it as a platform to spout hate speech, and streamers are left trying to pick up the mess. Luckily for this young Twitch streamer, his mom was on standby to issue them a stern warning. The streamer, whose identity is unknown, looks to be a young American kid, barely old enough to use the platform targeted at people aged 13 or older. Twitch requires parental supervision for streamers under the age of 18, and his mother was doing just that on his Minecraft stream. While sitting in the loading screen, the streamer received an incredibly racist donation message along the lines of “bash all n****** skulls in PogChamp.” Warning: Racism Taken aback by the message, the streamer immediately called his mom over to sort out the issue, and she showed her son’s viewers the boundaries. Read more: Twitch bans “sexualized” Spongebob emote – “Let me make something abundantly clear to you,” she said. “If you come in spamming that shit I will make sure that you are banned from Twitch, from our lives in general.” She took a strong stance against the troll but most importantly made sure her son was safe after the incident. How to turn on profanity filters in StreamLabs and StreamElements While text-to-speech donations usually have some sort of profanity filter, some streamers don’t have the filter enabled, or don’t have strict enough settings to block out hate speech. It’s pretty easy to turn on if you don’t have them enabled already – going into the Donation Settings menu in StreamLabs, or the Tipping Menu in StreamElements, and turning on the Profanity Filter should block out most swear words. This can help keep streams as PG as possible, and safe from text-to-speech donations like this. It’s unclear whether he had the filters disabled or otherwise, but the fact of the matter is the message slipped through the cracks, and his entire Twitch chat was exposed to it. The mother’s warning might only be to her son’s own audience, but everyone involved in the streaming community can take a leaf out of her book when it comes to donation messages. Make sure your filters are strong and enabled, and if you are a parent, keep your kids safe online.

Twitch streamers not impressed by higher revenue split to run more ads Twitch is rolling out their higher ad revenue splits to more streamers as of mid-August, with lots of affiliate-level streamers able to earn as much as 55% of ad revenue as long as they run more. Discussion and debate about revenue splits for content creators, from subscriptions to ads, has been ongoing, particularly in comparison to YouTube streaming, as some Twitch streamers have argued the split is less favorable for them. On August 18, a number of affiliate streamers on Twitch were sent a notification that they can earn an increased split from ads, but the downside is running much more ads per hour. This increased split incentive has actually been available to some streamers earlier in the year, announced in June, but rolling it out to affiliates means both big and small creators can take advantage of it – although many don’t want to. Twitch streamers don’t want to run more ads The response on social media from streamers has generally indicated that they would rather not run more ads for their viewers to endure, especially as a growing channel, and miss out on the increased revenue split. “Beginning today, we increased the ad revenue split to 55% for qualifying Affiliates,” Twitch said in an email. “To opt in, just set Ads Manager to at least three minutes per hour and leave it. That’s it. You’re in.” Twitch streamer SgtChubb, a small but growing channel with just under 200 followers, said “I feel like all that time would be better spent interacting with my viewers to interest them in subscribing, surely? More subs = more money, more fun sub slots & less annoying ads for viewers.” Fellow streamer Cookieninja213 said “that’s a lot of freaking ads and kinda seems spammy taking up 5% of the hour.” “Annoy all my viewers and make them leave my streams for 50 cents extra a month? WHAT A DEAL!” joked another streamer, Vtuber kiyomihoshi. Obviously, streamers would prefer a higher split from subscriptions as opposed to ads, as many streamers dislike running ads which can cause viewers to drop out of the channel. For smaller streamers especially, every individual viewer is precious to growth and sustainability, so running more ads, even for increased revenue, might not be the smart play long term.

Twitch streamer’s mod fails challenge locked in dark closet for 3 days for a free car Twitch / ERBY__Twitch streams have become more diverse and varied over the years – with the arrival of Subathons and sleep streams. But ERBY declared that if his mod can survive in a dark closet for three days he will buy him a car. ERBY offered one of his moderators, named c0usta, the challenge of staying in a pitch-black closet for three days. His reward? A 2005 Chevrolet Suburban. He set up cameras in the closet, c0usta got in a comfortable position, and the challenge began. Did he manage to survive in the closet? With the challenge setup, c0usta’s challenge began, while the viewers eagerly sat down to watch his struggles unfold. Seconds, then minutes, then hours ticked by. ERBY gave viewers a chance to help aid the Moderator’s survival in the closet. Gift 500 subs on ERBY’s Twitch stream, and c0usta would receive a treat to help him endure the challenge. Gift 2k subs and the streamer would drive to go get the moderator some food. But he also gave viewers the chance to make the challenge more difficult for c0usta. Viewers gifted a certain amount of subs to terrorize the moderator – with flashbangs, random noises, and more. Still the hours ticked on, and c0usta remained stuck in the dark closet. The Twitch stream chat began to seriously wonder whether he was going to complete the challenge. He reached the 12-hour mark. Then the 20-hour mark. C0usta was nearly a third of the way through the challenge. Survive another couple of days and the car was his. But as the minutes ticked over to the 24-hour mark, the challenge proved too tough for c0usta, and he quit. While he did not earn the 2005 Chevrolet Suburban, the moderator earned the respect of fans for enduring for as long as he did in the crazy Twitch challenge. ERBY isn’t the only one to feature challenges on his stream. Erobb smashed his stream setup after failing a Smash Bros challenge.

Twitch streamer’s grandparents raided by police after swatter gets wrong address Instagram: supcaitlin / WikimediaIn another terrifying swatting incident targeting a Twitch broadcaster, an elderly couple had their home raided by police, as the prankster got the streamer’s grandparent’s address instead of her own. Swatting is the illegal and highly dangerous act of making a false report to police, claiming that a serious crime has occurred or is underway at an address, in hopes of prompting an armed response to the location. It is often targeted at streamers, because the trolls aim to have the moment captured during the broadcast. However, swatting has had deadly consequences in the past, and can result in length prison sentences. On January 17, the home of supcaitlin’s grandparents was swatted, after it appears the prank caller believed it is where the streamer lived. Streamer’s grandparents swatted Supcaitlin, a Gen.G member and Twitch streamer with over 300,000 followers, explained the situation on Twitter. “My grandparent’s house got swatted last night because the person who swatted me thought I lived there,” she said. “My grandparents are fortunately fine, but they are old and don’t speak the best English so they are very scared and confused. “The internet is a very scary place,” Caitlin concluded. Swatting has been an alarmingly common occurrence, especially to target content creators, for over a decade. In 2022, multiple swatting of big-name streamers took place, including Adin Ross and iShowSpeed. xQc, the most watched streamer on Twitch, revealed that he was targeted with swattings almost daily, and so eventually had to move. Although content creators can often make arrangements with police to counter the prank calls, in this case, a fake report to a different address would never have been caught. The most infamous swatting incident which led to the death of an innocent father, led to the perpetrator being jailed for 20 years.

Twitch streamers lash out as Burger King “takes advantage” with new ads Burger King[jwplayer FBWgGe8Y]Some of the biggest names on Twitch have come together in uproar over a controversial marketing campaign from Burger King that saw donations used as a cheeky form of advertising. Marketing through the Amazon-owned platform often takes a familiar form that’s agreed upon by all parties. From sponsored streams playing certain titles to content creators featuring various logos and promotion on the broadcast itself. There are plenty of campaigns that come and go without being all too intrusive. Burger King has come under fire for crossing this line. Rather than gaining the permission of popular personalities, they pushed forward with a controversial marketing scheme. They created new Twitch accounts in order to sneakily donate with one clear intention. These donations would come with messages that promote the latest deals across America. From popular variety streamers to competitive veterans, Burger King targeted some of the biggest streams. Naturally, it didn’t take long before most caught on and fired back at the fast-food franchise. https://twitter.com/Ogilvy/status/1295707612315553799 Marketing agency ‘Ogilvy’ sought out to create a unique method of advertising on Twitch. The client was Burger King and the company decided that using donations was the best way to get the brand across. “Burger King turned Twitch’s donation feature into a marketing campaign,” an August 19 tweet explained. Without contacting streamers directly, the marketing team donated exact amounts of Burger King’s “best offers.” These donations would then appear on stream with messages that outlined certain deals that viewers can get for small amounts, be it $5 or less. “I donated five bucks so I can say that on the Burger King app you can get a whopper and a small french fries for five dollars,” one donation included. This instance was directed at Call of Duty veteran and mega-popular Warzone streamer Tyler ‘TeePee’ Polchow. “Listen… are you going to sponsor me or not?” TeePee responded in the moment. Just a random dono. Think they did it a couple more times and then I stopped it from happening because it was weird — Tyler Polchow (@TylerTeeP) August 19, 2020 It turns out that there was no collaboration between the parties whatsoever. “Just a random dono,” he replied in the August 19 thread. “They did it a couple more times and then I stopped it from happening because it was weird.” Plenty of Twitch streamers soon followed up, frustrated by their inclusion in the marketing campaign without consenting. Faces were blurred, voices were modified, and no callouts were provided to outline the streamers in focus. “I really despise when companies take advantage of my live content in order to push their ads,” AnneMunition said. The marketing agency made no effort to “clear it” with popular streamers ahead of time. Nor did they offer what “should be paid for the marketing.” An amount that is certainly “more than $5,” she added. I really despise when companies take advantage of my live content in order to push their ads without clearing it with me first or offering what I should be paid for the marketing, which is more than $5 I’m pretty sure. I encourage other companies not to be like this one. — Anne Munition (@AnneMunition) August 19, 2020 Plenty of others chimed in to label the campaign as “predatory” and “scummy” from the agency. Though the video promoting this activation is still yet to be altered or removed, and no response has been provided from those behind the marketing. While the agency likely thought their method was wholly unique, this isn’t actually the first instance on Twitch. Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel was once baited by a mobile game developer as they paid to autoplay their trailer in the midst of a January broadcast.

Twitch streamers frustrated as new sub pricing tools are missing despite promises TwitchTwitch has begun the rollout of local sub prices across the world, but some streamers are demanding change to the new system, as it could heavily impact their income. In July, Twitch announced the rollout of local sub prices, essentially making it cheaper for Twitch viewers to subscribe to their favorite streamer with local pricing. Before the change, UK viewers would be paying £4.99 per subscription, which is approximately $7, but a subscription in the U.S is only $5, making it unfair for viewers in other regions. For your average Twitch viewer, this is music to their ears, as they can now subscribe for cheaper, but the issue is that the creators will now be receiving less per subscription and they can’t see as to where exactly most of their subs are from. Previously, streamers would typically have a 50/50 split with Twitch for subscription revenue. If a viewer outside the U.S subscribed, the platform would still split the revenue from how much a sub costs in the U.S, which is $5. With the release of local subscription pricing, the platform will now 50/50 the country equivalent, which could have a huge impact on the creator’s revenue. Twitch was aware of the impact this can have on creators before local sub pricing was released. Mike Minton, VP of monetization at Twitch tweeted in May that the platform is working on a tool for creators to see a breakdown of what countries their revenue comes from before they go too far into the changes. We are working on it and know it is needed before we get too far into the price changes. — Mike Minton (@MikeMinton) May 17, 2021 With the majority of Europe having their local subscription price adjusted, streamers expected to be able to analyze where their revenue is coming from, but that tool still hasn’t arrived. Popular streamer Cohh Carnage tweeted at the platform, voicing his concerns, as some viewers are reportedly paying 60%+ less on subscriptions than they previously would. The streamer emphasized how important those reporting tools are. The variety streamer agreed that local sub pricing was a good decision saying: “This is a fantastic move overall by Twitch and I’m pretty sure every creator is behind it. What we’re asking for is the reporting and tools to work with it. We all want it. We just need more info.” ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ — TUCKER (@JERICHO) August 5, 2021 Other streamers, big and small, chimed in too, asking for Twitch to roll out these tools so they can start to assess changes to their income. Just got to hope they roll out tools so we can analyse where our subs are coming from to see what impact this has on income — Dust Monkey (@DustMonkeyGames) August 6, 2021 Hey @Twitch @TwitchSupport now that you’re adding Local Sub Pricing that is going to negatively affect Content Creators income with no tools for people to even see how badly it’s going to affect them, do you think it’s time to relook at the 50/50 split you offer to all creators? — Waltee (@WalteeWartooth) August 5, 2021 It’s so easy to figure out how much you’ll get paid with this new system – it’s just like shopping for health insurance! pic.twitter.com/2kSl0ocKeg — twitch.tv/Alisha (@Alisha12287) August 5, 2021 Besides working on a tool for creators, Twitch is launching a 12-month program to guarantee certain revenue levels will be reached. Twitch will cover 100% of baseline channel and Prime sub revenue (if needed) for three calendar months, including the month of the price change. Incentive payments will be decreased by 25% every three months for the next nine months. As long as that creator streams at least 85% of their live baseline hours in a month and meets certain other eligibility criteria, they will pay the creator a revenue adjustment incentive to make up for lost revenue.

Twitch streamer’s gaming monitor stops bullet and keeps working Twitter / @ericgan98A Twitch streamer was protected by his MSI gaming monitor, after multiple shots were fired at random and pierced the walls of his room – and the monitor continued to function after. On March 4, gamer Eric Gan and his housemates endured a barrage of bullets being fired at their rooms, five shots in total, by a stranger, in what police say was a random incident. Gan wasn’t playing or streaming at the time, with bullets fired at around 4AM, but the monitor could well have saved his life, as it remains intact, and in working order, despite having a bullet lodged in it. House just got shot by random stranger from the street. Msi monitor got hit and blocked the bullet and still functioning. What a day.. shout out to @msiUSA @msitweets pic.twitter.com/IhwVH2BO0O — Eric Gan 颜 (@ericgan98) March 4, 2019 The monitor, an MSI Optix G27C2, likely wouldn’t have faired so well if the bullet hadn’t lost most of its momentum by travelling through the wall first, but still, it’s impressive nonetheless. Other bullets penetrated both the dry wall and then the ceiling, but the device appears to have stopped the projectile dead in its tracks. Most of the shots penetrated through the dry wall and ended up on the ceiling. (Basically penetrated through two surface). However one of the bullet ended up penetrating the wall and hit the back of my monitor. Didn’t end up penetrating the monitor and monitor turns out fine. — Eric Gan 颜 (@ericgan98) March 5, 2019 After Gan’s post went viral, MSI USA reached out the gamer and streamer, and are now sending him a replacement – although there is no word on whether this one is bulletproof too. Team MSI has reached out to me on reddit and they were really cool by sending me a new monitor! :sob::pray::skin-tone-3: Thanks @msiUSA @msitweets pic.twitter.com/4rkZNwCwuo — Eric Gan 颜 (@ericgan98) March 5, 2019 In the meantime, Gan is still streaming with his bulletproof monitor on Twitch, and his story going viral helped his channel gain some new followers too. Thankfully, neither Gan nor his housemates were hurt in the incident, with all other bullets connecting only with the walls and ceiling.

Twitch streamer’s equipment broken after man attacks him twice in two months Twitch: reydemptoTwitch streamer ‘reydempto’ found himself being attacked again by the same man who chased him nearly two months ago — and this time, the attacker broke his equipment. IRL streamer ‘reydempto’ has had some fairly negative experiences while broadcasting his adventures in Amsterdam, where he currently lives. In the past, the streamer has been harassed by strangers while enjoying nights out on the town… and he’s even been chased by angry bystanders. In May 2023, reydempto was streaming in a park during the daytime when a group of guys expressed that they didn’t want to be filmed. One of them even chased the streamer while threatening to kill him over the incident, leading to a frightening confrontation that had reydempto shouting for help. Now, reydempto has been attacked again by that very same man — but this time, the attacker managed to deal some damage. Twitch streamer’s equipment broken by attacker in second park chase On July 4, reydempto returned to that park for another IRL stream when he ran into the same man who’d chased him mere months ago. After exchanging some heated words with the guy, he started following reydempto and eventually caught up to the streamer, who cried out for help… but not before the man knocked him down, dealing some serious damage to his equipment in the process. “Dude, no f*cking way is this dude back again,” rey said. “Leave me alone! …I’m allowed to film!” In messages to Dexerto, reydempto confirmed that the attacker had broken his streaming equipment, which can be seen bugging out near the end of a clip taken from the altercation. That’s not all; on Twitter, rey also confirmed that his assailant has been arrested as a result of the scuffle. Luckily, the situation appears to have been taken care of — but unfortunately, it looks like rey’s streaming setup got scuffed in the process. This is far from the first time a streamer has been chased or even outright attacked during an IRL broadcast; in 2022, a streamer was physically assaulted by strangers while traveling in Japan.

Twitch streamers fight for 70% sub revenue split ahead of rumored changes TwitchTwitch streamers have begun campaigning for a 70% revenue split following reports that the Amazon-owned streaming platform is considering massive changes to its partnership program and subscription revenue. A recent report by Bloomberg has suggested that Twitch is considering major changes to its partner program, advertisements, and subscription revenue that’ll all potentially hit the platform this summer. Additionally, the popular streaming platform is also considering lifting its exclusivity requirement in their contracts, which would allow streamers to broadcast on both Twitch and other platforms at the same time. However, streamers aren’t exactly sold on the proposed ideas, and although these changes reported by Bloomberg may not be implemented at all, they have begun campaigning for an increase in the subscription revenue split across the board from 50% to 70%. Twitch’s partner program offers exclusive contracts to those at the very top, which may sometimes include a better revenue share rate from 50% to 70%, contracted hours, and much more. However, the rest of the platform’s broadcasters have banded together with their campaign to get a 70% split for subscription revenue across the board amid the reports that Twitch is considering lowering the split for its top streamers to 50%. “Give all Twitch creators 70% revenue split,” said streamer TheMavShow, which started a movement in the community. GIVE ALL TWITCH CREATORS 70% REVENUE SPLIT GIVE ALL TWITCH CREATORS 70% REVENUE SPLIT GIVE ALL TWITCH CREATORS 70% REVENUE SPLIT GIVE ALL TWITCH CREATORS 70% REVENUE SPLIT GIVE ALL TWITCH CREATORS 70% REVENUE SPLIT GIVE ALL TWITCH CREATORS 70% REVENUE SPLIT — TheMavShow (@TheMavShow) April 27, 2022 “OnlyFans pays out 80%. Patreon 90%. YouTube 70%. Twitch is the only creative platform that takes such a huge cut and you must reach $100 in revenue (after split) before they’ll even pay you. Stop taking so much from creators,” said one Twitter user. @twitch @twitchsupport Onlyfans pays out 80%. Patreon 90% Youtube 70%. #Twitch is the only creative platform that takes such a huge cut. Must reach $100 in revenue (AFTER split) before they’ll even pay you. Stop taking so much from #creators & #smallstreamers #TwitchStreamers https://t.co/LEMwwTgJ0J — Chewie Monster (@ChewieMonstr) April 28, 2022 Another added: “Stop trying to find the new best way to f**k over the people making you money. You make things difficult enough as is by lowering discoverability as much as possible. If there’s a revenue change, pay affiliates more, don’t take money away from people.” @Twitch stop trying to find the new best way to fuck over the people making YOU money. You make things difficult enough as is by lowering discoverability as much as possible. If there’s a Rev change, PAY AFFILIATES MORE, don’t take money away from people https://t.co/qubxWrGjTp — VoodooJonnyFear (hiatus) 🔞 (@VoodooJonnyFear) April 27, 2022 Once again it’s worth noting that the reported updates are yet to be confirmed by the Amazon-owned platform. Additionally, Twitch is yet to respond to streamers’ concerns with the revenue changes.

Twitch streamer accidentally sets hair on fire in charity stream One Twitch streamer set a lofty donation goal while raising money for a good cause, but things quickly took a frightening after her stream accidentally caught fire – quite literally. Many streamers will set a donation goal for various reasons, be it raising money for a new PC, funds for a trip, or in this case, doing their bit for charity. Generally, these streamers will also meet their audience halfway with a reward once their goal has been met, like playing a certain game on stream or even wrestling in a pool of peanut butter (never change, Mizkif). However, one streamer took her donation goal to the extreme, after announcing that she hoped to raise $500 dollars during her broadcast for a charity. Rather than undertaking a normal task as a reward, though, the streamer joked that she would set her hair on fire if she hit the ambitous target – but didn’t actually plan on following through. “Should I set fire to my hair, if somebody donates?” she pondered. “If someone donates $500, I will set fire to my hair.” Holding a lighter up to her hair in jest, the streamer ignited a flame, which unexpectedly transferred to her hair. In a moment of panic, she quickly blew out the flame with a short breath, doubling over in laughter at what was nearly a very scary situation. “Oh my god, I just set fire to my hair!” the streamer laughed. “Oh my god, it smells!” The streamer told Dexerto she has only started her channel on Twitch two months ago, and so is still getting used to the platform, and made sure to delete the clip after to avoid anyone potentially imitating the accident. She explained that it was not at all intentional, and to ensure no one tries a similar stunt, even in the name of a good cause. It was possibly hairspray product in her hair that made it ignite so quickly. Twitch’s Community Guidelines aim to protect users, by stating “any activity that may endanger your life or lead to your physical harm” is prohibited on the site.

Twitch streamers devise hilarious ways to protest DMCA strikes Twitch: Chainbrain / DeadPirateBrandonTwitch streamers are having a tough time with all the DMCA takedowns, but some of them have found a bit of humor in the situation by muting their audio in hilarious ways to protest and make a point. Twitch streamers are still being rocked by relentless DMCA takedowns forcing them to delete content or risk a ban. Even some of the biggest streamers like Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel and Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys have had to comply. It’s reached the point where the platform issued an apology and explanation, and even suggested streamers mute games to avoid potential strikes. However, some streamers decided to take a stand and protest these instructions by obeying them in a ridiculous and funny way. Chainbrain is a partnered streamer who streams gaming and music. He even streams a combination of the two in the form of Ubisoft’s Rocksmith. Unfortunately, that means Twitch’s DMCA crackdown will significantly impact his content. Read more: Shroud defends Twitch over Dr Disrespect ban – In his latest stream, he decided to take a stand in the funniest way possible. “I took the advice Twitch gave and muted my Rocksmith game audio,” he said. “Sounds pretty good, I think! You also get a more realistic sweaty metalhead experience!” https://twitter.com/xChainbrain/status/1326922976399384580?s=20 JayCaulls is another partnered streamer who followed suit. “So I took Twitch’s advice and muted the game audio,” he said. “No DMCA Strikes for me!” He posted a clip of him listening to the sound of invisible drums and guitar. “Love these drums,” he said while bobbing his head in silence. “Oh, and that crisp guitar! I can’t wait! Woohoo!” So I took Twitch’s advice and muted the game audio! No DMCA Strikes for me! pic.twitter.com/VC6f2KPFxU — JayCaulls (@JayCaulls) November 12, 2020 DeadPirateBrandon took a stand in the same vein. However, he approached it differently. Instead of streaming himself play a rhythm game in silence, he hopped into Resident Evil 2. “Here’s the future of Twitch,” he said. “A completely clean DMCA version of Resident Evil 2.” The funniest part is that he makes the special effects himself and even narrates the dialogue. Here’s the future of Twitch. A completely clean DMCA version of Resident Evil 2. pic.twitter.com/WecW68ToWS — Doctor Pirate Brandon (@DeadPirateB) November 12, 2020 There’s no harm in a peaceful protest, especially when it’s light and humorous. However, these streamers were out to make a point. Twitch’s DMCA crackdown is a crucial issue that has changed the landscape of streaming and culture. It will be interesting to see what happens next and what streamers can do to adapt to the situation. But until then, they have no choice but to tread carefully to avoid potential strikes and bans.