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Twitch reverses ban on streamer who made freestyle rap dissing “misogynistic” viewer Twitch/nandreTwitch has apologized to a streamer after the Amazon-owned platform suspended him for seven days for making a rap dissing a viewer who was being “misogynistic.” As the streaming wars between Twitch, Kick, YouTube and other sites heat up, there’s a lot of scrutiny towards Twitch and how it handles itself, given its many controversies recently. The latest incident occurred on June 12 when Twitch streamer ‘nandre’ was hit with a week-long ban for making a freestyle rap against a viewer in his chat, which the site considered to be harassment. However, the backlash was great enough for the platform to revert its decision – a rare instance, considering many streamers are often left having to endure their bans. Twitch streamer banned for rap against “misogynistic” viewer In a post on Twitter, nandre screenshotted an email from Twitch stating he had been banned for a week for harassing others and was quick to call out the company. “I got banned for a week for doing a freestyle rap about a chatter who came into my stream spewing misogynistic rhetoric,” he blasted. “This is so incredibly damaging to me right now. Momentum in streaming is so real and I can’t afford a week off while my stream is peaking.” After submitting an appeal and comparing his situation to a streamer who was banned for a week for having sex during a live broadcast, nandre got the response he was hoping for from Twitch. In a follow-up email, Twitch admitted they made a “mistake” and reversed the decision, writing: “Please accept our apologizes for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.” Sadly, for those wanting to see the rap, it doesn’t look like that’s possible. Speaking with Dexerto, nandre claims the VOD has been deleted and there’s no clip of it left. At least he’s no longer banned, though!

Twitch reveals three new features to help combat hate raids TwitchTwitch has officially announced a series of new features that will help creators on the platform combat hate raids, including making it so new accounts cannot send raids. In August 2021, Twitch streamers began experiencing ‘hate raids’ from anonymous users attacking them with racial and homophobic slurs on stream. This prompted the creation of the #TwitchDoBetter movement, which led to streamers boycotting the platform on September 1, 2021. Since then, Twitch has created various features to help combat hate raids with shared ban lists and phone verification, among other features. Now, the platform is back with more features, this time with changes to the platform’s built-in raid system. Twitch announces features to combat hate raids During Twitch’s most recent Patch Notes stream, the company revealed that they will be adding new settings and features to the raid system. They also shared the list of features on Twitter: Set a minimum/maximum viewer threshold for incoming raids. – Limit incoming raids based on the minimum account age for the channel raiding you. – Choose the type of channels that can add you – The viewer threshold and minimum account age for incoming raids are biggest of the features spotlighted, as it will help prevent newly created ‘bot’ accounts from sending you a raid. Many creators are also worried that it will limit the ability for small streamers to raid other accounts. It’s unknown what effect it will have on that front, however, so we’ll have to wait to see. In the meantime, head over to our entertainment hub for more Twitch news.

Twitch reverse DarksydePhil ban for “hateful slur” and admit it was a mistake YouTube: DarksydePhilTwitch streamer Phil ‘DarksydePhil’ Burnell has had his suspension from the platform overturned, after Twitch banned his account for ‘hateful conduct’ on May 15. The streaming platform said the suspension was a “mistake on our part.” DarksydePhil is a longtime Twitch streamer with over 100,000 followers, who has faced a series of bans in the past, including another erroneous ban in October 2020 for a DMCA claim that was overturned. On May 15, DSP revealed that he had been handed a seven-day suspension for using a “hateful slur”, but immediately denied that he had done so. “This DID NOT NOT HAPPEN, I have tons of people watching the stream and it simply didn’t occur,” he said on Twitter. “I now have to appeal this bc apparently Twitch doesn’t know what they are doing.” So I was just suspended from Twitch for 7 days bc of a “hateful slur???” This DID NOT NOT HAPPEN, I have tons of people watching the stream and it simply didn’t occur. I now have to appeal this bc apparently Twitch doesn’t know what they are doing. — Things Are HEATING UP! (@TheyCallMeDSP) May 15, 2021 DarksydePhil unbanned When users posted a clip of the incident in question, DarksydePhil claimed that he had stuttered on the word ‘negative’, and said Twitch was “out of their minds.” He also confirmed he had appealed the suspension but was worried it would take a number of days to fix. “”While stationary, negger, uh, negative seventy five percent damage.”” When actually reading what I’m saying on the screen, this cannot be mistaken for anything else. The N WORD?!? Twitch is out of their minds. I’ve appealed but it can take days to fix. https://t.co/LFKHvlG570 — Things Are HEATING UP! (@TheyCallMeDSP) May 15, 2021 However, Twitch overturned the ban quickly, within a matter of hours. Sharing the message he received from the platform, DSP said he would still stream on YouTube instead, as he had already set up his channel for it. Twitch’s message simply read: “Your account was suspended or blocked due to a mistake on our part. I’ve gone ahead and reversed this suspension on your account, so you are free to use our services once again.” Twitch has just LIFTED my channel suspension and admitted they were in the wrong. However, I’m already in the process of setting up YouTube streaming, and we’re going to try it tonight (And likely tomorrow) anyway, to test the waters. This “”mistake”” forced my hand. pic.twitter.com/n3sfupDNml — Things Are HEATING UP! (@TheyCallMeDSP) May 16, 2021 The platform also apologized for any inconvenience or confusion. DarksydePhil lost his partnership with Twitch earlier in 2021, and claimed that he was no longer going to receive payment from Twitch revenue he made. As a result, he increased his donation goals, and ran a ‘marathon stream’ as a fundraiser. However, some fans were critical of how forceful he was in asking for donations, and one fan was banned from his chat for refusing to donate through PayPal. However, on the same day that he was banned, DSP revealed that Twitch would in fact be making a payment to him that month. Fans in the replies questioned why he did the fundraiser, believing they had been scammed. DarksydePhil responded that the amount received from Twitch was less than normal, because his partnership had been ended 3 weeks into the month, therefore missing one week. For the time being, it looks like Phil will be moving to stream more on his YouTube channel instead.

Twitch reveals new rewind feature coming as part of streaming experiment TwitchThree new features are in the works at Twitch as a new experiment has teased everything from rewind capabilities to stream reminders coming soon. As one of the leading livestream platforms on the internet today, Twitch is constantly under the microscope. Any subtle changes or Earth-shattering leaks can often send shockwaves throughout the online entertainment industry. While some recent ideas from the Amazon-backed platform have come under fire right away, others are often welcome additions to the streaming and viewing experience. The latest batch of improvements is sure to fall under the latter category as Twitch announced three new features currently in the works: Rewinding, setting reminders, and watching trailers are all part of their new experiments. 🔬 Over the next month, some viewers may see up to 3 new buttons on live channels pages: Rewind the Stream, Remind Me, & Watch Trailer. This experiment will inform future features only and the buttons will be removed once it’s complete. For feedback: https://t.co/52L43BAJsz — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) October 20, 2021 “Over the next month, some viewers may see up to three new buttons on live channels,” the official Twitch Support Twitter account revealed. Although these buttons are set to be removed at the end of the testing period, they will be “informing future features.” The first new button is labeled ‘Rewind the Stream.’ As the name implies, viewers have the power to rewind a live broadcast with this new feature. Rather than clipping the last chunk of a stream, rewinding should allow viewers to go back much further. Whether you’re late to join your favorite streamer’s big event, or you just want to rewatch someone’s previous multiplayer match, for instance, this feature should accommodate you. Next up is the Remind Me feature. This seems to be a simple addition that does what is says on the tin: reminds you as your favorite streamers are going live. Last but not least is the Watch Trailer button. This appears to allow new viewers to watch stream channel trailers without needing to manually navigate to a profile page. All three features are set to be live for select users over the course of a month, Twitch has confirmed. Read More: Top 10 most viewed Twitch streamers – It’s worth noting not every feature is guaranteed to make it. However, it’s safe to expect to see some of the new additions rolled out globally in months to come.

Twitch reveals plans to combat harassment and hate raids in 2022 TwitchTwitch has outlined how the company plans to protect its streamers from harassment while combating practices like hate raids in 2022. Vice President of Global Trust and Safety at Twitch, Angela Hession, published an open letter on January 12. It details steps the platform has taken to thwart “unacceptable” trends in 2021 and what they want out of the new year. “As 2021 showed us, there will always be highly motivated bad actors who work to spread hate and evade our protections,” Hession wrote. “So even as we think and build at scale, we also need to consider these specific outliers who are set on causing harm on our service and others.” Moving forward, Twitch will look to “strike a better balance” between communicating to its communities and keeping “bad actors” at bay, she added. Twitch security in 2022 Twitch is exploring more ways to protect its streamers from the harassment and hate raids that took over discourse in 2021. The company outlined a few improvements that will be available for streamers in the new year: Improvements to the user reporting and appeals process – Updates to how Creators can use the information from Suspicious User Detection – Updates to Twitch sexual content policy – Updates about Twitch Safety Advisory Council, which are inspired by user feedback – More and better educational content and programming on Twitch Safety Center, live streams, and more – In providing more tools to Twitch streamers, the company aims to deter harmful behavior from users and empower communities through tools they can control. The company also wants to educate people on safe practices and communication, as well as find a balance with content that “may not appeal to all audiences.” The open letter comes off a rough year for Twitch as top streamers made the switch to YouTube, while native broadcasters wrestled with metas that clashed with their rules and saw a spike in harassment. Read more: Is getting DMCA banned the new Twitch meta? – Twitch was largely reactive to problems as they would arise in 2021. The platform faced criticism for inaction or its silence in the face of bots and hate raids, among other gray areas like the gambling and TV/Movie reaction metas. As the lead on Twitch safety, Hession wants to incorporate more tools to control broadcasts as well as have more open communication to grow trust with its streamers.

Twitch reveals policy to combat extreme off-site streamer misconduct TwitchTwitch has unveiled its new plans to deal with streamers accused of harassment or incredibly severe offenses such as recruitment for terrorist organizations happening off-site. On April 7, the Amazon-owned streaming platform revealed how it will be tackling behavior that happens off the site in a blog post. Harassment on Twitch has been a complicated issue and one that the site has been addressing throughout 2021. Its updated harassment policy, which went into effect on January 26, for instance, went as far as to prohibit certain emote combinations that could be considered hate speech. Now, the platform has outlined that there are two distinct categories that are considered when dealing with harassment and other more extreme offenses. According to the blog post, when someone is harassed on and off Twitch, they will “take into account verifiable, off-service behaviors or statements that relate to an incident that took place on Twitch.” “For example: if we’re reviewing a harassment report about an incident that happened live on stream, related or continued harassment on Twitter could be taken into account when reported to us,” they added, noting how this is currently the site’s policy. The newer category, however, goes into actions that may pose a threat to Twitch even if they are completely off-site. These include, but are not limited to, deadly violence, terrorist activities or recruiting, leadership or membership of a known hate group, exploitation of children, and carrying out, or acting as an accomplice to non-consensual sexual activities. “While this policy is new, we have taken action historically against serious, clear misconduct that took place off service, but until now, we didn’t have an approach that scaled,” Twitch stated. “For behaviors that take place off Twitch, we must rely more heavily on law enforcement and other services to share relevant evidence before we can move forward.” Furthermore, the site is bringing in an experienced investigations law firm as a partner to assist with investigations. According to the platform, this partnership will allow them to “more thoroughly investigate and respond to reports of off-service misconduct.” Twitch also says that it will have safeguards in play to deal with any false reports and will suspend those encouraging others to submit false accusations. Additionally, Twitch says that it will not be taking action against any channel until an investigation is complete and they can confirm evidence of wrongdoing.

Twitch reveals new plans to combat predatory and harmful accounts Unsplash: onurbinay/TwitchTwitch has provided an update on its plans to combat predatory and harmful accounts on the platform, including acquiring an AI company to help detect harmful text on the platform. As Twitch continues to gain popularity throughout the world, it’s become open to bad actors joining the platform. A report from Bloomberg back in September found thousands of predatory accounts on Twitch, prompting the company to publish a blog post regarding the issue on the same day. The Amazon-owned company issued an update to its blog post on November 23, revealing new plans and methods to combat predatory accounts. Twitch reveals new plans to combat predatory accounts In the post, the platform explained that they’ve continued to work on the ways it keeps users under 13 from having accounts on Twitch. The post listed three different measures that have been put into place, including blocking users from creating new accounts after being suspended for being under 13 years old. On top of that, Twitch has introduced mandatory phone verification requirements before users can stream as a way to prevent younger users who made accounts with false information from going live. Twitch also revealed that on top of preventative measures, it has introduced ways to monitor for predatory behavior and trend with updated privacy settings for Whispers and blocked certain search terms to find content on the website. Also, the company recently acquired Spirit AI, an artificial intelligence company that will support the company by building ways to detect “harms of all kinds” in the written text on Twitch. Despite all of this, the company still wants your help: “To stay ahead of predatory bad actors, collaboration is critical. We urge anyone with information about grooming on Twitch to share it with us so we can protect the children involved.”

Twitch reveals plan to stop child predation spreading across platform via clips TwitchTwitch has revealed its plan to combat child predation on the platform as predators use clips to share explicit content of minors. On January 5, 2024, Bloomberg published a report claiming child predators had taken to using the popular streaming platform Twitch as a means of sharing child abuse videos amongst one another. Predators have reportedly been recording and posting sexually explicit videos that feature minors by using the Twitch “clips” feature — a feature that allows for 20-second snippets of any live stream to be captured and shared. Having analyzed nearly 1,100 clips alongside The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Bloomberg found approximately 7.5% featured children being sexualized. Now Twitch is stepping in to put the illegal practice to an end, revealing a bulleted list plan to combat child predation on its platform. In an email to Kotaku, Twitch shared its plan to combat the problem, writing, “Youth harm, anywhere online, is unacceptable, and we take this issue extremely seriously. We’ve invested heavily in enforcement tooling and preventative measures, and will continue to do so.” To ensure the safety of its users and protect minors, Twitch has assured that live streams undergo “rigorous, proactive, automated screening,” with potentially harmful content and channels removed as necessary to prevent “the creation and spread of harmful clips at the source.” Twitch has also dedicated teams to actively focus on preventing grooming and ensuring no one under the age of 13 can create an account on the platform. This includes additional models to detect grooming, preventing banned users from making new accounts, and a detection model for identifying users under 13 years of age. “We also recognize that, unfortunately, online harms evolve. We improved the guidelines our internal safety teams use to identify some of those evolving online harms, like generative AI-enabled Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM),” the platform wrote in their email. “More broadly, we continue to bolster our parental resources, and have partnered with expert organizations, like ConnectSafely, a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about online safety, privacy, security, and digital wellness, on additional guides.” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy also spoke to Bloomberg on the issue, echoing, “Youth harm, anywhere online, is deeply disturbing. Even one instance is too many, and we take this issue extremely seriously. Like all other online services, this problem is one that we’ll continue to fight diligently.” Be sure to check out all the latest entertainment news on our page here.

Twitch reveals DMCA strikes “aren’t permanent” anymore in YouTube-inspired update TwitchAfter receiving lots of criticism, Twitch finally changed the way DMCA strikes on the platform work, making them “impermanent” like the ‘timed strikes’ system used on YouTube. It’s been a while since Twitch launched an extensive crackdown on streamers breaching DMCA rules. In that time, they’ve rolled out new measures to make it easier for streamers to avoid breaking them and vowed to make more in the future. However, they’ve also made it easier for people to report streamers and penalize them with DMCA strikes, which has led to the possibility of the situation worsening in the upcoming weeks and months. Fortunately, Twitch has re-written their DMCA guidelines to balance it out. The biggest changes are that a streamer will now need to receive three strikes to be considered a repeat infringer, and strikes are not permanent. “A user will be considered a repeat infringer if they accrue three copyright strikes,” they wrote. If it gets to that point, they will “terminate an account holder’s access to the Twitch service.” “Strikes are not permanent, but rather are associated with an account for enough time for Twitch to determine whether the account holder is engaging in repeated infringement such that termination is necessary under this Policy.” Read More: Twitch unbans Mr Wobbles amid WillNeff drama – There’s still uncertainty about what constitutes “enough time”, but many agree it’s an improvement on the old system, and much closer to the one used on YouTube, which revolves around multiple strikes within a 90-day period.

Twitch reveals how often police were contacted for “credible threats of violence” in 2020 Pixabay/TwitchTwitch has revealed a wealth of new information in its 2020 transparency report, including details on when the platform contacts and works with law enforcement. On March 2, the Amazon-owned streaming site released its first-ever global transparency report, covering January to December 2020. The report details how its moderation levels increased from the first to the second half of the year, actions taken to prevent harassment, inappropriate content and even information about law enforcement. While not exactly a common occurrence, there are some incidents that happen on Twitch that eventually result in police being contacted. This can be more likely to take place within the realm of IRL streams. As Dexerto has reported, IRL streams can be some of the craziest out there, with streamers sometimes filming brawls or even receiving threats against themselves. According to this latest information provided by Twitch, “Whenever and wherever Twitch identifies credible threats of violence, Twitch will proactively send user data to appropriate law enforcement agencies.” The site says that in 2020, there were 38 such cases. However, the majority took place during the first half of the year. Twitch suspects this is because of the decrease in public gatherings caused by the global health crisis. “The lack of public gatherings means there are fewer places and events for people to direct violent threats toward,” Twitch wrote. Additionally, Twitch stated that when they are made aware of content depicting child exploitation or grooming behavior, they remove the content and report authorities via the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. There was a 66% increase from the first half of the year to the second, which Twitch says is due to improvements to their investigation process. Furthermore, the site revealed that they compile data requests from law enforcement around the world in relation to crimes they may be investigating. They say that the number of subpoenas and preservation requests processed increased by 37% in the second half of the year, but this was within the volume they expected.

Twitch reveals changes they’re looking to make after wave of DMCA music claims TwitchTwitch have revealed that they’re trying to talk with a number of music labels after a wave of DMCA claims have come in against streamers, with some dating back a few years. For the longest time, many Twitch streamers were happy enough to stream themselves playing games and use music in the background, and they’d rarely ever get in trouble for doing so. In recent years and months, using copyrighted music on stream has become a pretty big issue, with DMCA claims coming in against streamers big and small – with some claims dating back many years. The rise in DMCA claims has led many streamers to delete their VODs and clips shortly after they finish streaming for the day, which prevents some fans from catching up with things. Now, after another wave of claims, Twitch have dropped an update. In an email sent out to Twitch users, both streamers and viewers alike, the Amazon-owned platform stated that they’d received a batch of DMCA takedown requests with around “1,000 individual claims” from different music publishers. Twitch noted that they believed these claims were being made by automated systems, which means further claims probably aren’t too far away, so if streamers have picked one strike, they might be in line for another. “We are actively speaking with music labels about solutions that could work for creators as well as right holders,” Twitch said. “This is our first such contact from the publishing industry (there can be several owners for a single piece of music), and we are disappointed they decided to send takedowns when we are willing and ready to speak to them about solutions.” As for avoiding strikes in the short term, Twitch noted that VODs with copyrighted music in should be removed, but they’re also working on “educating” creators on what they can and can’t use. “These conversations (with music publishers) are active and ongoing, and we continue to work with them to establish potential approaches that would be appropriate for the Twitch service and our entire community,” they added. The Amazon-owned platform confirmed that when an additional update is available, they’ll dish it out to users. For now, though, DMCA still looms large.

Twitch reveal plan to combat hate raids following #ADayOffTwitch protest TwitchTwitch have issued a bit of a response to the rise of hate raids, informing streamers that they’re working on tools to combat the abuse. For the longest time, trolls have used bots on Twitch to try and get creators in trouble. More often than not, they’ll juice up a streamer’s follower number in a bid to get them suspended. More recently, bots have been used in hate raids. These raids, which have mainly targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community on Twitch, see bots spew vile messages and slurs in chat as a way to attack the streamer and their community. With these attacks becoming increasingly more common, content creators have asked for Twitch to step in. Their initial response was blasted by many and prompted the #ADayOffTwitch boycott which saw streamers and users ignore Twitch on September 1. Now, Twitch has issued a further response through their safety center. In a new updated page, Twitch points to the fact that streamers being targeted by these hate raids can increase moderation on their channel for the time being through blocking raids, using an increased level of AutoMod, and other measures. Read More: Twitch stats hit by #ADayOffTwitch movement – As Twitch acknowledges, these are temporary measures for now as they work on tools to combat the hate raids. “Harassment of any kind, whether in the form of hate raids, malicious spam, or other targeted attacks, is against our Community Guidelines and counter to our community values,” They say. “We are continuing to build new features to prevent the harm caused by malicious spam, botting, and raiding, but in the meantime, we wanted to highlight the tools that are currently available to help combat this kind of behavior. We know many Creators are already using these strategies, and have been sharing tactics and tools with each other, and we want to ensure this information is readily available for others who may need it.” In waiting for Twitch to develop tools, some streamers have turned to third-party tools. Twitch notes that some of these might be “helpful” but if they compromise a streamer’s data or channel, it makes it tough for them to help. There is no telling as to exactly when these new tools will be available, but it’s clear that the platform is trying to seriously clamp down on these attacks. (Afternoon Update) Twitch has sent out an email to creators with a statement regarding the recent malicious attacks. The email explains that when it comes to safety on the platform, their work is “never-ending” and that the previously announced tools to help combat the attacks will be launched as soon as possible. However, they do understand that’s not what some people would like to hear right now. “We know it’s frustrating that we can’t share more details about what we’re working on. The individuals who are targeting marginalized creators are highly motivated. The more information we offer about what we’re doing to stop them, the easier it becomes for them to navigate around those plans.” To help combat malicious attacks, the company is hosting a Creator Camp with a focus on moderation tools on Wednesday, September 15 at 9pm PT.

Twitch reveal TwitchCon 2020 dates in Amsterdam and San Diego Mrsjoviah twitter / TwitchTwitch have revealed plans for TwitchCon in 2020, announcing new dates and locations for the popular livestream convention. TwitchCon is held twice a year, typically with an event in North America and Europe to celebrate some of the livestreaming platform’s streamers and communities. Twitch hosts a range of activities for both streamers and fans to experience such as meet and greets, panels, Twitch Rivals tournaments, and much more. Although TwitchCon 2019 is just getting underway in San Diego, California, Twitch has already revealed that TwitchCon will be returning the west coast yet again in the San Diego Convention Center for 2020. However, the European TwitchCon event will be held in a brand new city, after being previously held in Berlin, and is now set to take place in Amsterdam for 2020. Twitch also released the dates for each of the events, starting with the European TwitchCon on May 2-3, 2020 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre and September 25-27 in 2020 for the San Diego convention. This TwitchCon is just getting started, but we already have big plans for next year. We’re excited to announce TwitchCon is coming to Amsterdam and returning to San Diego in 2020.Sign up here to get details as they drop: https://t.co/bz6rr2KElu pic.twitter.com/z3AV8SKrUm — Twitch (@Twitch) September 28, 2019 Twitch Rivals often hosts tournaments at the TwitchCon events for some of the biggest streamers and pro players in esports, as was seen with this year’s Fortnite Trio’s Showdown. However, it did have its share of technical issues during the tournament, which even led to FaZe Clan star NICKMERCS threatening to leave. Despite its issues, TwitchCon 2019 also saw some highly entertaining moments take place such as the meeting of two of the platform’s most popular streamers, xQc and Tyler1, which went exactly as many fans would expect. It’s the main event for fans to meet their favorites and for Twitch to make big announcements on the future of the platform, and is always packed for both the European and North American venuses.

Twitch reveal changes to increase streamer payouts after criticism UnsplashTwitch has updated its ad revenue system to try and curb criticism about streamer payouts following a rumored partnership system change. The new version increases money earned through ads and opens it up to more streamers. Twitch;s model and structure has been the topic of much discourse over the years. In particular, much comparison has been drawn between the Amazon-owned platform’s monetization policy versus other platforms like YouTube. When changes were first rumored for the revenue split in 2022, they were met with backlash from both viewers and major content creators. However, Twitch have announced they will be further developing their incentive program via increased advert payout — with no changes to subscriptions yet. A June 14 blog post detailed how the platform plans to expand on the opt-in Ads Incentive Program (AIP) to include more creators, as well as give some streamers upwards of a 150% pay increase when they play specific ads. “If they stream for a specific amount of hours in that month with a specific ad-density, they’ll receive a predetermined payout. Let the Ads Manager handle the ads and at the end of the month you get paid,” Twitch said, describing how the AIP works. Instead of a flat rate for every 1,000 ad views, streamers will now receive 55% of the revenue for every ad that runs on their streams. While the AIP is still only available to selected streamers, Twitch affiliates will soon be able to get in on the program — starting in August it will expand to include qualifying affiliates. Affiliates will get to remove pre-roll ads from their stream — a very controversial setup — if they agree to show three minutes of ads an hour. They’ll also get an increase in payouts too. 🌟 Tomorrow, Ads Incentive Program will be available to more Partners – paying an increased 55% ad revenue split on all offers! 👀 Affiliates, we have something coming soon for you too… 📚 Learn more: https://t.co/CNXRQTuoBW — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) June 14, 2022 The new ad revenue agreement hasn’t pleased all streamers. Smaller broadcasters claim the ads will still negatively affect their streams without much payoff. Others have suggested swapping to a pop-up ad model rather than overtaking the stream. However, no changes to how ads are displayed have been touted.

Twitch reveal details on their plan to stop “hate raid” harassment TwitchTwitch has, once again, promised they’re working on solutions to hate raids targeting streamers, but also say the process is slow going. For a long time, but increasing as of late, creators on Twitch have had to deal with so-called ‘hate raids,’ where channels are overrun with a large number of bots spouting all kinds of racist drivel in chat, or worse. Streamers have been practically begging Twitch to take action, and on August 20, the platform put out a series of tweets assuring the community they are trying to fix the problem. Hate spam attacks are the result of highly motivated bad actors, and do not have a simple fix. Your reports have helped us take action–we’ve been continually updating our sitewide banned word filters to help prevent variations on hateful slurs, and removing bots when identified. — Twitch (@Twitch) August 20, 2021 “Hate spam attacks are the result of highly motivated bad actors, and do not have a simple fix,” Twitch wrote on Twitter. “We’ve been continually updating our sitewide banned word filters to help prevent variations on hateful slurs, and removing bots when identified.” According to the streaming site, they’re doing more than just filtering chat and banning bots. However, they said the tenacity of the people conducting these raids means Twitch can’t share every single detail of what they’re doing. “We’ve been building channel-level ban evasion detection and account improvements to combat this malicious behavior for months,” Twitch continued. “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.” In the meantime, please keep reporting these egregious attacks. It helps us identify and remove bad actors and their networks, and update tools as behaviors evolve. These changes may not be visible, but we are making them daily. — Twitch (@Twitch) August 20, 2021 The replies to Twitch’s second thread in as many weeks on the issue echo the same feelings of the #Twitchdobetter hashtag from early August. Though the company’s talked more about it recently than in the past, it’s clear some creators and fans want to see Twitch doing more, rather than reading about their intended changes via Tweet threads. “These changes may not be visible,” the site added on Twitter. “But we are making them daily.” For now, while some streamers are coming up with creative ways to deal with hate raid bots, what exactly Twitch themselves will do about the problem remains to be seen.

Twitch unbans TriHex, Badbunny and more after fake DMCA’s of CBS debate YouTube: CBS News / TwitchA number of Twitch streamers, including Mychal ‘Trihex’ Jefferson and BadBunny, were hit with DMCA takedowns for their streaming of the CBS Democratic Debate – and now Twitch have commented on the issue. Seven Twitch partners were banned by the platform in the series of strikes, which were claims made not by CBS but a separate group named Praxis Political Legal. As well as Trihex and BadBunny, a number of political commenters were banned such as David Pakman, TheMajorityReport, and Justin Robert Young. Shortly after the fact, Twitch reached out to Dexerto saying that they were “currently investigating DMCA notices directed to channels in connection with last night’s Democratic debate.” Now, they have taken action and made a statement following their investigation. Twitch released a statement to VICE Games on February 26 explaining that every creator is being reinstated access to their account, and that the copyright strikes were “false notices.” The full statement was as follows: “Twitch’s investigation has determined that the alleged copyright infringement notices directed to channels from Praxis Political are false. Twitch is reinstating access to each account and removing any strike attributed to a channel in connection with the notice, effective immediately. We regret that a false notice from a 3rd party disrupted any of our streamers and appreciate all who alerted us to the concerns about Praxis Political. The safety of our community is a top priority and it is unacceptable to target folks with false claims. The investigation continues as to the actor that submitted the notices.” As well as sorting out the issues the individual accounts faced, Twitch are clearly still investigating the third party involved and taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again. The Praxis Political Legal website has since been wiped off the face of the Internet, with the contact email disabled to remove any public-facing aspect of the group. With the streamers getting their accounts back, we should be seeing them get back into their content and commenting on upcoming political debates soon enough.

Twitch response to VTuber tag exploit slammed as “unacceptable” Twitch: Marina / TwitchVTubers are speaking out after Twitch addressed concerns of non-virtual streamers using its ‘VTuber’ tag, claiming they would take care of the matter “later this year.” Twitch is a haven for all sorts of content. From globetrotting IRL streams to game shows with celebrity guests and more, the purple streaming platform has something for everyone. The VTuber community has also taken residence on the site in a huge way, fostering supportive communities and racking up a shocking viewership in the process. VTubers refer to streamers who use virtual, anime-style avatars to represent themselves. This is achieved with motion tracking technology, allowing streamers to interact with their audiences in a unique way. Earlier this month, some VTubers expressed concern after noticing that non-virtual streamers were using the VTuber tag on Twitch. Tags on the site allow users to search for content that they specifically want to watch — but in this case, viewers looking for VTubers were getting met with huge streamers like xQc and Amouranth, who used both the VTuber and ASMR tags on their broadcasts. Twitch got a huge problem with ASMR streamer using the wrong tags. Seriously Amouranth and many other people are using the Vtuber tag and it’s misleading and disrespectful to actual Vtuber that want to grow on Twitch pic.twitter.com/cPmSTvPJuL — GreyLumos (@GreyLumos_) April 17, 2022 Twitch response to VTuber tag drama sparks outrage One English VTuber, Marina, took matters into their own hands and contacted Twitch regarding the matter. However, the site’s response wasn’t exactly what she was hoping for. A Twitch administrator replied to her concerns, saying that while the company understands the need for correct tagging, they “do not feel Twitch should be the judge of Creators’ personal or creative identity.” “We typically only enforce the misuse of tags when it is associated with other behavior that violates our Community Guidelines, such as hateful conduct or harassment,” the admin wrote. Marina posted a screenshot of the exchange to Twitter, saying that “‘Later this year’ is unacceptable. We need action NOW.” UPDATE: Twitch has replied. “”Our goal is to have more to share with you about the tags feature later this year.”” Later this year is unacceptable. We need action NOW. pic.twitter.com/ooZNJIv9xd — Marina 🦑 Kraken Mommy (@MarinaVT_) April 22, 2022 A slew of other VTubers and fans have spoken out in support of Marina and the community — but several big streamers aren’t really concerned about the ordeal. Notably, xQc and Sodapoppin both dismissed outrage surrounding the use of VTuber tags, with xQc saying: “The reality is, nobody should give a f**k. If you’re mad, you are the only person who cares.”

Twitch responds to $25m lawsuit about “suggestive” female streamers Amazon-owned Twitch has responded to a lawsuit filed against the livestreaming platform, which requested $25 million in damages because of suggestive content on the site. In their response, Twitch has filed for a SLAPP motion. In June, frequent plaintiff Erik Estavillo filed a lawsuit against Twitch, demanding damages due to claims that the platform had made him suffer through medical problems related to sex addiction, because of the content and algorithms on the site. Specifically, Estavillo listed the names of female Twitch streamers he sought to be permanently banned from the platform, arguing that they violated the platform’s own community guidelines. The lawsuit, which was, at points, extremely descriptive, received widespread coverage for its complaints, especially because of the high-figure that was requested in damages. Twitch files Anti-SLAPP motion In a response, filed on August 18, Twitch’s lawyers have asked for the complaint to be struck under Anti- SLAPP laws. Anti-SLAPP laws are intended to protect businesses and individuals from essentially baseless legal proceedings. Typically, these are suits only intended to be costly or time-wasting for the defendant, rather than actually seeking victory for the plaintiff. Twitch has requested that the court strike the plaintiff’s complaint “on the grounds that Plaintiff’s Complaint against Twitch is subject to a special motion to strike under California Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16.” Code 425.16 refers to “a disturbing increase in lawsuits brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and petition for the redress of grievances.” Specifically, Twitch states that Estavillo’s claims “violate California’s SLAPP statute, C.C.P. § 425.16. Plaintiff’s Complaint attempts to limit Twitch’s right to decide what content to allow or not allow on its service, which falls squarely within Twitch’s protected constitutional right of free speech.” “Fortunately, California’s SLAPP statute provides a mechanism for protecting against abusive lawsuits such as this one,” Twitch continues. “Because Plaintiff’s Complaint arises directly from content available in a public forum and acts in furtherance of speech about matters of public interest, the SLAPP statute shifts the burden to him to present admissible evidence substantiating his claims.” Twitch states that Estavillo’s complaint does not meet this burden to “establish a probability that he will prevail on his claims,” for two reasons: Plaintiff’s Complaint is barred in its entirety by the federal Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230(c). – Even if not barred by the Communications Decency Act, Plaintiff’s Complaint fails to state a viable claim under California law. – Twitch also notes that it is protected from such claims, as its Terms of Service state it “takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any User Content or for any loss or damage resulting therefrom, nor is Twitch liable for any mistakes, defamation, slander, libel, omissions, falsehoods, obscenity, p****graphy, or profanity you may encounter when using the Twitch Services.” You can read Twitch’s full response here: They also highlight the plaintiff’s history of prior lawsuits against major tech companies, and use quotes from his book, The PSN Plaintiff, such as bragging he has made “a pretty decent online presence in the light of my lawsuits.” If the plaintiff cannot meet the burden of evidence showing they can win the suit, then the case will be dismissed under Anti-SLAPP proceedings. Anti-SLAPP statutes often allow the defendant to collect attorney’s fees from the plaintiff.

Twitch just responded to a Dr Disrespect question during Transparency Report Instagram: @drdisrespect / TwitchAfter his infamous ban in summer 2020, fans all over the world have been wondering why streaming star Dr Disrespect was booted from Twitch — and the platform finally acknowledged his permanent suspension in a recent broadcast. The two-time Blockbuster video games champion is one of the biggest streamers in the world, and was, at one point, one of Twitch’s most popular personalities. Despite his incredibly high production value and massive audience, the Doc received a surprising permanent ban from the site after years of streaming on the platform in 2020. It wasn’t just the ban itself that sparked conversation and questions, though; instead, it was everyone’s strange silence on the matter, with both Twitch and Dr Disrespect refusing to spill the beans as to exactly why he was suspended. Both parties have continued to avoid the topic like the plague. While the Doc has made a massive comeback on YouTube, his viewers are still curious as to why he was given the boot, and one of them asked this question during a recent broadcast of Twitch’s Creator Camp. 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 During their 2020 Transparency Report breakdown with Twitch’s head of Creator Development, djWheat, and Global VP of Trust and Safety, Angela Hession, one viewer popped in the chat to ask: “Any Dr Disrespect news??” While most viewers would make a safe bet that Twitch would merely refuse to acknowledge the question at all, they were surprised when a staff member responded to the query — although it was with a mere “No.” Despite the brevity of their answer, this is the closest to a true “response” as we’ve gotten ever since the Doc’s ban occurred last June. Twitch previously released a statement on the subject, but it appears to be much the same as when other high-profile streamers have been banned, in the past. “As is our process, we take appropriate action when we have evidence that a streamer has acted in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service,” Twitch said of the matter. “These apply to all streamers regardless of status or prominence in the community.” For now, it looks like fans are still in the dark as to whether or not we’ll ever get the real reason behind Doc’s ban.

Twitch respond to concerns as millions of new bot accounts created TwitchTwitch have responded to concerns about bots after an “easy” way to create new, fake accounts after a massive spike revealed millions of new profiles. Some Twitch streamers spend years grinding away trying to build a community of followers that will tune into their streams on a regular basis. Though, not every follower is a real person. Over the last few years, the Amazon-owned streaming platform has run into regular issues with bot accounts – fake profiles designed to boost somebodies follower numbers – with some trolls using them to try and get a streamer banned. These fake profiles have been sent to a wide range of streamers, both big and small, prompting a massive shake-up in the most-followed channel rankings at times. And things could get even worse thanks to a new method that trolls now have at their disposal. Twitch streamers concerned amid surge in bot accounts On September 25, Twitch partner CommanderRoot noted that over 4 million new accounts had been created in 24 hours, as someone had seemingly uncovered an “easy” way to amass bot profiles. This, naturally, concerned plenty of streamers who called upon Twitch to do something about it. While action hasn’t yet happened, one Twitch dev – RayApollo – confirmed that the problem is on their radar. “Hey! Heads up, Teams are aware and working on this!” he replied, shortly after the initial post picked up some traction between streamers. As we’ve seen previously, battling against these bot accounts can be tricky for Twitch. While they are easy to identify – as the names usually have a string of numbers in there – some streamers haven’t been able to shake them off. Streamers are hoping for a quick resolution to the matter, but it’ll be a case of wait and see as to what Twitch can do about them.

Twitch requests that court dismisses PhantomLord lawsuit Twitch, PhantomLordThe latest filing in the ongoing legal action between former Twitch streamer James “Phantomlord” Varga and Twitch has occurred, with the streaming platform presenting several arguments as to why they believe the case should be dismissed. The legal wrangling between the two parties has lasted two years at this point, with Varga seeking $35 million of damages and Twitch maintaining that not only were they within their rights to ban him but also that his activities caused them reputational damages as well. The bulk of the arguments thus far revolved around a contractual clause that stated any damages sought by either party in the result of a breach would be limited to $50,000. After much back and forth, Judge Karnow of the Superior Court of California ruled that such a clause was so disproportionately in favor of Twitch that it was substantively unconscionable. This ruling enables Varga to seek uncapped amounts of damages. With the trial now at the phase where parties can submit motions for summary judgments – essentially argumentation that shows something to be so legally evident there is no need to argue it at trial – Twitch have requested that the judge dismiss the case entirely on several legal grounds. The first request for dismissal that Twitch make is on the grounds that they believe Varga’s claims to be barred under Section 230(c)(1) and 230(c)(2) of the Communications Decency Act. Many will know this particular law as the one that states platforms are not publishers, and they are immune to legal liability from the actions of people who use their platforms. Currently, there is a political discussion around whether or not these protections should be repealed amid claims of partisan censorship from tech platforms. However, another aspect of the law is that it protects such platforms from lawsuits being brought against them on such matters as, quoting from the findings in the case of Nemet Chevrolet, Ltd. v. Consumeraffairs.com, “Section 230 grants “immunity from suit rather than a mere defense to liability… Courts therefore routinely apply Section 230 in the early stages of litigation because such immunity would be “effectively lost” if defendants were subject to protracted litigation.” Section 230 also provides another form of immunity for such platforms for “any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider considers to be obscene, or otherwise objectionable.” Twitch state that as Varga’s legal team have not been able to provide any evidence of them having acted in bad faith, they meet the requirement. “Moreover, Twitch did not act in bad faith because the TOS and Partnership Agreement (to the extent it even governed his account termination here) forewarned against exactly the type of content for which Plaintiff was penalized” they argue. “Inappropriate content, non-gaming content, and activity that contravenes applicable laws such as gambling productions.” Twitch’s legal team also state that without these protections there would still be no grounds for a claim that there was a breach of contract. They outline that all streamers on the platform agree to be governed by their terms of service and they are clear in that “Twitch, in its sole discretion, for any or no reason…may terminate any account…at any time. . . Twitch may also in its sole discretion and at any time discontinue providing access to the Twitch Service…with or without notice….any termination of your access to the Twitch Service or any account you may have…may be effected without prior notice, and you agree that Twitch will not be liable to you or any third party for any such termination.” As the other arguments get into the minutiae specific to Varga’s claim against Twitch, he had also presented an argument that Twitch had unfairly breached their contract by banning him when he was told by a Twitch employee he could stream non-gaming content for 30 minutes at a time. This was a significant part of the evidence presented to the court and the depositions that were taken. Twitch’s counsel argues that not only is this an irrelevant detail but that the fact Varga didn’t adhere to these limitations, which was one aspect that prompted the ban from the platform, he invalidates his claim that it was Twitch that caused him harm. “First, Varga claims that he relied on Twitch’s statements about the 30-minute rule and was penalized for following them – but this is demonstrably false. In fact, he did not limit non-gaming content to 30 minutes- a-time; he exceeded this limit on all of the occasions on which he received a violation for non-gaming content. The fact that he did not adhere to Twitch’s admonitions alone defeats the claim that they caused his harm.” They also continue stating that “more importantly, Plaintiff’s account was suspended for other, independent reasons besides broadcasting non-gaming content. It is beyond dispute that, irrespective of his non-gaming broadcasting, he committed a long string of serious violations of Twitch’s policies, which had already led to a prior suspension, providing ample reason to terminate. Thus, Plaintiff’s reliance on Twitch’s supposedly inconsistent representations about broadcasts of less than 30 minutes is a red herring, and was completely irrelevant to the decision to terminate him.” Finally, Varga’s legal team had also argued that his termination was covered by California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) as it “prohibits any unfair competition, which means ‘any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice.’” The basis for this argument was that his ban was arbitrary and by extension, on the basis of the evidence they presented, unfair. Unsurprisingly, Twitch reject this argument and state: “As discussed above, Twitch could permissibly suspend his account under the TOS. In addition, Plaintiff’s attempt to repackage his breach claim as a UCL claim is an effort to put a square peg in a round hole. The claim is fatally flawed…” Those flaws are listed as the claim failing to meet the requirement that it “protects the general public,” an essential component of claims under the UCL. In addition the legal precedent in the state is that selectively enforcing parts of contractual agreements is not deemed to be “unfair.” The claim also seems to seek out a resolution not covered by the UCL as the only remedies are “restitution” or “injunctions.” As Varga’s counsel invoked the UCL “to order Twitch to immediately lift Varga’s suspension and restore his Twitch.tv account” Twitch argue this invalidates the claim as functionally there are no grounds for this contained within the UCL. While a trial date has been set for October of this year the court will now consider these multiple arguments for dismissal of the case. If one is accepted as having merit there’ll be a chance for appeal but if that were to fail the likelihood is the lawsuit would either have to be dropped or repurposed so as not to fall afoul of the laws that saw it dismissed. The court has set a tentative date of September to respond to these motions although they could be ruled upon much sooner.

Twitch resets stream keys for everyone but says passwords are safe after leak TwitchTwitch has provided an update following the major breach that took place on October 6, reassuring users that login credentials should be safe, but resetting stream keys for everyone out of “an abundance of caution.” On October 6, a data breach gathered over 120gb of internal Twitch materials, including source code and earnings data for top streamers, and even what appeared to be a Steam competitor in development from Amazon. Twitch confirmed the breach had taken place later in the day, and said that they were working with urgency to understand the extent of it. On October 7, the Amazon-owned platform provided an update, informing users that stream keys had been reset for everyone. Twitch stream keys reset A stream key is a unique number, used to link a broadcasters streaming software to their Twitch channel. It is one of the most protected pieces of data, as a stream key would be a crucial component if a malicious actor wanted to ‘hack’ into a channel and stream from it. Twitch even tells user not to share their stream key with Twitch staff, to protect it. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have reset all stream keys,” Twitch said on its blog. “Depending on which broadcast software you use, you may need to manually update your software with this new key to start your next stream.” What about Twitch passwords? One of the big fears following the breach was that infomation like users passwords was at risk. Some believed that the data was in the leak, but encrypted, and so unless targeted, would remain private. However, in their blog, Twitch states “At this time, we have no indication that login credentials have been exposed. We are continuing to investigate.” So, while you may want to change your password out of caution, for the time being, there is little need to panic. Update October 15: Twitch has updated its official blog with good news for streamers and viewers alike. They stated that everything has been secured following the massive security breach, as well as also confirming login data and credit card/bank information were not compromised in the leak.

Twitch reportedly set to lay off 500 employees UnsplashLayoffs at Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch are seemingly set to continue in 2024 as roughly 500 employees, 35% of the total workforce, are reportedly on the chopping block to start the new year. Update: On January 10, 2024, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy confirmed that they are laying off over 500 employees across the company. 2023 was an incredibly turbulent year for the gaming and entertainment industries with layoffs all but across the board for developers and streaming giants alike. Twitch wasn’t spared of this fate as a reported 400 staff members were let go early in 2023. Later reports indicated even more roles were “at risk” and now, those warnings seem to have come to fruition. Bloomberg reports roughly 35% of Twitch’s total headcount is set to be let go in the coming days, totaling roughly 500 employees. The platform is supposedly set to finalize its decision this week, with hundreds of employees soon to be informed of their redundancy. It’s unclear at the time of writing which particular disciplines may be impacted most by these layoffs, or whether the reduction sweeps across the entire company. As key executives parted ways in 2023, Bloomberg also reported the “exodus” was far from over, with many still onboard detailing ‘inner turmoil’ in light of the significant shakeups. Now, with roughly 500 more staff members set to be cut in the coming days, it’s clear stability isn’t quite in the cards as 2024 gets underway. This enormous round of layoffs also comes hot on the heels of Twitch’s decision to abandon the South Korean market in early 2024 due to supposedly “prohibitive” costs of operations. Though, it’s unclear if the two are directly linked at this stage. We’re sure to see an outpouring of job alerts across social media in the days to come as Twitch employees are notified of the company’s decision. We’ll keep you posted here with all the latest developments as the reported layoffs imminently take effect.

Twitch reportedly testing subscriber-only broadcasts and people aren’t happy UnsplashTwitch is reportedly testing out subscriber-only streams that would give non-subs a preview of the stream before forcing them to subscribe to watch the rest. If you’re a streamer on Twitch, it looks like you’ll soon have to the ability to gate off non-subscribers from viewing your stream. This new feature would give viewers a short preview of the stream before being forced to either subscribe to the channel or find one that doesn’t have the same restrictions. Twitch is testing subscriber-only live streams. No official announcement yet, but we’d expect one soon. Check out a preview at https://t.co/E7w9uxZ4LH Thank you to @Tomparkes1993 @LBrGaming for tip. pic.twitter.com/xnaHyNIPFt — Streamer News (@StreamerNews) May 27, 2019 It’s too early to tell what effect this will have on the overall viewing experience on Twitch but if enough streamers use this feature, it could create some issues. One positive is it will help streamers bring in more income if viewers are required to sub, however, it could also turn viewers away who don’t want to subscribe. It’s worth mentioning that doing this will be completely optional so it’s not like viewers will have to worry about shelling out $4.99 a month to watch their favorite streamer once this feature goes live. Twitch already gives broadcasters several ways to make the viewing experience better for subscribers. Streamers can enable subscribers-only chat which means simply being a follower won’t allow you to chat. Subscribers also get to skip ads, which streamers are also able to run at their own discretion. Responses have been very negative Many viewers think this a step in the wrong direction for Twitch and it opens the door for the streaming giant to become a “cam-girl” website. “Oh hell yeah, private cam shows,” wrote Reddit user Twitteri in a comment. “Yikes, that’s gonna suck,” wrote user Kwoui, in a comment that has over 500 upvotes. It’s hard to argue with the fact that the viewing experience wouldn’t be hurt with this change, of course, that all depends on how many streamers actually use it. Nothing is confirmed yet It’s worth mentioning nothing has been confirmed yet by Twitch so viewers might be getting worked up about nothing. If Twitch does implement a feature like this, look for them to do it in a more public setting versus just doing it on a random stream. Esports journalist Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau said he believes this feature is being tested for the Overwatch League. from looking into it i believe these accounts are just testing the overwatch league all access pass features, and these are not new Twitch features https://t.co/gWbefWorN5 — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) May 27, 2019 While that could be true, the Overwatch League’s All Access Pass has worked like this for over a year now, so the feature could soon be expanding to be more widely available on Twitch. We’ve reached out for comment from Twitch and will update if we hear anything back.

Twitch reportedly considering big partnership changes and sub revenue splits Unsplash: @thomasdebraekeleer/TwitchTwitch is reportedly considering big changes to their partnership contract, including reducing subscription revenue splits and adding more incentives for partners to run ads throughout their streams. Since Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014, the popular streaming platform has amassed over two million broadcasters — and over 50k of them have made it to partner status. Partners on the platform have an exclusivity clause, meaning they agree to live-stream exclusively on the Amazon-owned site. As well, some have the ability to request a higher revenue split for their subscribers, bringing it up to a 70/30 split instead of the 50/50 split offered to affiliates. According to a report from Bloomberg, Twitch is considering altering how partnerships work, which could result in more ads for viewers. Twitch considering partnership changes In the report, Twitch is considering at least three major changes to the partnership program. One of the updates they are considering would be more incentives for streamers to run ads throughout their stream. This is a change that some users believe has already been added to some large streamers’ contracts, as NICKMERCS has dealt with complaints about his ad breaks since he re-signed with Twitch last October. The Amazon-owned site is also considering getting rid of the 70% sub revenue cut offered to certain partners on the platform, lowering it to 50%. “Twitch staff is considering paring back the revenue cut of channel subscriptions granted to the top echelon of streamers in its so-called partnerships program to 50%, from 70%,” Bloomberg reported. “Another option is to create multiple tiers and set criteria for how to qualify for each one, two of the people said.” However, Twitch may offer to release partners from their exclusivity clause which would allow them to stream on Facebook or YouTube Gaming. In theory, if Twitch released NICKMERCS from his exclusivity with Twitch, we could see him streaming with Dr Disrespect again. However, Nick would still have to stream on YouTube. It’s important to note that these updates have not been finalized and could be changed — or completely abandoned before they are made official. We’ll have to wait to see what happens in the coming months.

Twitch removes PogChamp emote after creator’s controversial statement TwitchTwitch has removed the PogChamp emote from its platform after the “face of the emote,” Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez, “encouraged…violence” in a Twitter statement on January 6. The platform is looking to create a new emote to replace the iconic image. The PogChamp emote has been a staple of Twitch chatters — and even the internet lexicon — for almost a decade. However, the platform is looking to wipe its existence on January 6, off the back of controversial statements made by “the face of the emote.” Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez wrote a tweet about protests in America which the platform deemed was “encouraging further violence.” “We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today,” the platform wrote in their January 6 statement. “We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself– and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.” Twitch is looking to work with the community on a replacement emote that encapsulates “the most hype moments.” However, they are yet to share the exact process in how they’ll do so. We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today. — Twitch (@Twitch) January 7, 2021 The emote has various forms on the platform through the use of BTTV and FrankerFaceZ, third-party extensions that gives users more variety in chat. BTTV has announced they will not be removing their emotes — which include POGGERS — as they have “never removed emotes due to controversies.” FrankerFaceZ, however, will be removing all variations of the image from their extension. “Following Twitch, we’ll be removing depictions of the person from FFZ, but it may take some time,” they said on Twitter. Hi everyone, we hear Twitch and we hear you about recent developments surrounding the PogChamp emote. Following Twitch, we’ll be removing depictions of the person from FFZ, but it may take some time. Please report any emotes you feel are problematic, and we’ll take action. ^DS — FrankerFaceZ (@FrankerFaceZ) January 7, 2021 Streamers have reacted to its removal, as it was formerly one of the most popular emotes available. xQc understood Twitch’s decision, and other streamers called for it to be replaced by other streamers doing a similar face. PogChamp, as well as derivatives like ‘PogU’ and ‘POGGERS’, have worked their way into the internet’s vocabulary since becoming popularized in recent years. UPDATE Friday, January 8 10:20AM PST: Twitch has now announced a plan to release a new PogChamp emote every 24 hours for an unspecified amount of time. “You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now!” they tweeted on January 8, in reply to a fan suggesting that the emote isn’t removed but instead randomized from a pool of several streamer faces. “Get ready for a new PogChamp every 24 hours, starting today.” You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now! Get ready for a new PogChamp every 24 hours, starting today. https://t.co/R16EyASsFx — Twitch (@Twitch) January 8, 2021 The original PogChamp emote dates back to 2010 from an outtake of one of Gutierrez’ videos. It was added to Twitch in 2012, and was one of the first “global emotes” viewers could use.

Twitch reportedly bans viewers for typing “I’m 11” copypasta in chat TwitchTwitch users beware: the Amazon-owned website is reportedly banning users for typing an extremely popular copypasta in chat and getting your account back in good standing can be a major chore. It’s safe to say that the culture of Twitch can be a little hectic and, at times, bordering on the downright absurd. With so many memes, references, and slogans to keep up with, it can be quite confusing for anyone new to the platform. One such reference could even get users banned from the site, all because they were being sarcastic. Twitch takes the age of its users very seriously, not wanting anyone under the age of 13 using the site for streaming or chatting. As such, joking about being underage can have some massive consequences. I’ve noticed an issue with Twitch where you can get ur account suspended for typing “”I’m 11″” in chat. It’s also really hard to get your account back once its suspended. @Twitch @TwitchSupport — Philip Graham (@ChipSa_OW) August 8, 2021 Popular meme quotes such as “I am 12 and what is this” or “I’m 11 and have a two-paragraph essay due tomorrow” can result in users getting banned according to former Overwatch League pro and Twitch streamer Philip ‘ChipSa’ Graham. “I’ve noticed an issue with Twitch where you can get your account suspended for typing ‘I’m 11’ in chat,” the British streamer wrote on Twitter. “It’s also really hard to get your account back once it’s suspended.” Some users in chat revealed that they had been banned for this and noted the complicated steps it can take to get an account restored. This is what you’ve got to do if you want your account unbanned, gl with that pic.twitter.com/E3BKPkEzZq — Seven (@Seven96185103) August 8, 2021 In one screenshot, Twitch requested a user send their username, date of birth, IP address, email, and the last four digits of their phone number just in order to proceed with their unban request. “It took me 9 months to get unbanned for that,” another user revealed. Random Chatter “So what are you for holloween?” me “I’m 11 from stranger things” Twitch headcourters “That right there is a violation.” — Al hanna (@alhanna876) August 8, 2021 Others made interesting points where standard conversations could result in bans, such as what would happen if someone said they were dressing as the character “11” from Stranger Things for Halloween. Hopefully, Twitch can do something to keep users from getting randomly banned for reposting memes or copypastas, but until that happens, users may be better off avoiding claiming their age is under 13, even for comedic purposes.

Twitch removes new founders badge feature following streamer backlash TwitchTwitch has removed the ability to manage Founders Badges less than 24 hours after release following backlash from streamers on Twitter regarding certain aspects of the feature. Over the last few months, streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube have been releasing long-awaited features for their creators. On June 8, Twitch revealed its new way to manage Founders Badges, allowing streamers on the platform to revoke access from viewers who no longer visit their stream — and give that badge to someone else. However, less than 24 hours later, Twitch removed the tool following backlash from streamers on Twitter. 📢 Creators, we’ve heard you and we’re happy to announce improvements to the Founder’s Badge! 🌟 Starting today, you’ll now have more control and be able to irreversibly reassign your coveted badges! 📚 Learn more: https://t.co/ebWGa2PstM — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) June 8, 2022 Twitch receives backlash after new Founders Badge feature After the addition was announced — and instantly released — streamers quickly took to Twitter to explain their frustration with the way it works. As Twitch streamers revoked founders’ badges from streamers, it auto-applied the badge to your next-oldest subscriber — and sent them an email notification, even if that badge was immediately removed. This meant that if the badge went to someone that they didn’t like, or get along with, it could cause drama between the two users. Partnered streamer ‘MelouVoss’ warned other creators in her reply: “BE AWARE that removing one founder instantly notifies the person next in line – even if you remove their badge as well right away.” BE AWARE that removing one founder instantly notifies the person next in line – even if you remove their badge as well right away. — Melou (@MelouVoss) June 8, 2022 Another partnered streamer, NyyKage, also tweeted about the tool. She said: “ARE MF’S GETTING NOTIFS FOR FOUNDERS BADGES ON TWITCH NOW EVEN IF THEY ARE SKIPPED OVER? OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO LMFAO” ARE MF’S GETTING NOTIFS FOR FOUNDERS BADGES ON TWITCH NOW EVEN IF THEY ARE SKIPPED OVER? OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO LMFAO — Nyy (@NyyBeats) June 9, 2022 Twitch removed Founder’s Badge revocation feature Just hours after the feature went live and the issue began being noticed by streamers, Twitch removed it from the dashboard. Dexerto reached out to several Twitch streamers to verify that it had been removed from everyone on the site and found both affiliates and partners that no longer have the option to revoke access. It’s unknown when — or if — the site will re-enable it, but we have reached out to the company for a comment. In the meantime, head on over to our Twitch hub for more platform news.

Twitch removes NymN’s ‘booba’ emote for sexual content Instagram: nymionTwitch streamer NymN has been left shocked and confused after Twitch decided to remove his ‘booba’ emote for sexual content. For a lot of streamers, interacting with their community is one of the best parts of being a personality on Twitch. While the majority of viewers use donations and the chat to type messages, they can also use special emotes. These emotes vary from creator to creator, with each streamer having their own personalized emotes that mean different things. Despite this, if Twitch thinks an emote is inappropriate or breaches any of their terms of service, they’ll immediately remove it from the platform. Well, that’s exactly what’s happened to NymN’s ‘booba’ emote, and it has left him scratching his head over why it’s been flagged for sexual content. NymN left confused after Twitch ban his ‘booba’ emote Taking to Twitter on August 17, NymN revealed to his audience that Twitch had banned his ‘booba’ emote. According to the platform, it contained sexual imagery that fell under the category of a gasm-style emote that breached the rules. Of course, this left a lot of his viewers confused over which aspects of the emote had been flagged. While some assumed it was a result of the emote’s name, and others even said it could be due to its implications, the majority couldn’t get their head around why it had been banned. You can check out Twitch’s statement below: “Reason: Disallowed content – Imagery of sexual content or nudity, i.e “Gasm”-style emotes which contain sexualized torsos or bodily fluids.” Of course, a lot of NymN’s community were not happy about the news and were clearly frustrated that Twitch has taken action against the emote, with one writing: “What?? That has to be a mistake on their end? Right?” Another even made the comparison with Kreygasm, arguing that if NymN’s emote has been removed, that should be too: “Kreygasm is a global emote yet they ban other gasm emotes?”. For now, NymN hasn’t revealed whether he’s going to appeal the removal or just carry on without the ‘booba’ emote in his chat. This certainly isn’t the first time Twitch has frustrated a creator by removing emotes and it’s likely it won’t be the last.

Twitch removes “Blind Playthrough” stream tag after backlash Unsplash, TwitchTwitch has introduced a new change to the stream tags on channels, which has completely removed the “Blind Playthrough” tag from the site following criticism around the language used. It can often be difficult to get discovered as a new Twitch streamer, with thousands of other content creators broadcasting on the site at any one time. Twitch has previously introduced tags to address this issue in 2018, which can be added to a streamer’s channel and can be used by viewers for filtering their searches to find what they’re looking for. While the usual tags often include information such as language and type of content, one tag that was used for those playing a game for the first time was the “Blind Playthrough” tag. The tag would indicate that the streamer had not seen any spoilers or that they do not know much about the title’s gameplay and features before playing it. However, in a recent tweet, Twitch’s community director Erin ‘Aureylian’ Wayne highlighted that they have removed the tag from the site, following criticism around the choice of words used, with some suggesting that the language was ableist. Happy to see Twitch has listened to everyone who shared feedback and removed the “Blind Playthrough” tag to encourage more inclusive language for our community. You can still use “First Playthrough” or opt to use it in combination with “”No Spoilers”” for the same sentiment. 💜 — Aureylian (@aureylian) December 4, 2020 “Happy to see Twitch has listened to everyone who shared feedback and removed the ‘Blind Playthrough’ tag to encourage more inclusive language for our community,” she added. While the “Blind Playthrough” tag has been removed from the database, the Twitch director urged streamers to make use of the “First Playthrough” and “No Spoilers” tags in its place. Great question. “”Blind play through”” or “”going in blind”” Can easily be replaced by saying “”No spoilers play through”” or “”Undiscovered”” or “”first”” (if it is your first) A blind playthrough would be to turn your monitor off, and that’s not what most meanhttps://t.co/Y7uwOygWfG — Steven Spohn (Spawn) (@stevenspohn) June 15, 2020 The term “Blind Playthrough” was central to a discussion on ableist language sparked by AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn earlier in the year and now Twitch has acted in response. While Twitch’s latest change has been met with some positive responses so far, some users have argued the need for the change, highlighting that “Blind” has two official definitions. However, Twitch has remained firm on their stance, and streamers will simply need to use an alternative tag while streaming spoiler-free gameplay.

Twitch removes multi-stream rules opening creators to more platforms TwitchTwitch just revealed that streamers can now simulcast on any streaming platform as announced by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy at TwitchCon. Twitch used to be the top place for content creators to stream to their audiences but in recent years platforms like YouTube and Kick have begun pulling creators from Twitch with non-exclusive deals. The Amazon-owned platform banned all streamers from multi-streaming to “Twitch-like” platforms earlier in 2023, but now it seems they’ve had a change of mind. During the opening ceramony of TwitchCon 2023, CEO Dan Clancy revealed that they’re taking away any rules surrounding multi-streams, meaning you can stream on Twitch and Kick or YouTube at the same time. Twitch CEO announces lift on simulcasting restrictions At TwitchCon, Clancy was the first one to break the news to an audience of thousands at the convention. However for those not in attendance Twitch Support on Twitter also confirmed the news. “We’ve announced that you can simulcast on ANY live streaming service,” said Twitch Support. The Twitch guidelines have now been officially updated in support of this new ruling. While streamers are now able to stream freely wherever, there are still rules that the streamers have to adhere to on Twitch’s end. “In line with a coming change to our Terms of Service, we are now allowing you to simulcast on any service,” said Twitch. “We believe in giving you the freedom to simultaneously stream on other services, but we also want to ensure that the Twitch user experience is not compromised.” The simulcasting guidelines are as follows: You ensure that the quality of Twitch users’ experience of your Simulcast is, at a minimum, no less than the experience on other platforms or services, including by your engagement with the Twitch community, for example, via chat. – You should not provide links, or otherwise direct your community, to leave Twitch for your simulcast on other services because we value the community on Twitch and the integral role community engagement plays for all Twitch users. – You do not use third-party services that combine activity from other platforms or services on your Twitch stream during your Simulcast, such as merging chat or other features, to ensure the Twitch community is included in the entirety of the experience of your livestream. – For more news and other viral Twitch stories, head over to check out our coverage.

Twitch rejects JiDion ban appeal over a year after Pokimane hate raid YouTube/JiDionTwitch has given JiDion an update on his ban appeal after his Pokimane hate raid back in January of 2022 and the Amazon-owned platform won’t let the creator back on the site. In the beginning of 2022, JiDion made popular streaming sensation Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys quit her broadcast when he sent his followers into her chat to harass her. Despite JiDion and Pokimane making up afterward and even meeting up in person to settle their differences over burgers, Twitch hasn’t reversed its decision to permaban the creator. In a post on social media, the now-YouTuber revealed an email that Twitch sent him, updating him on whether or not he would ever be allowed back on the platform. Twitch responds to JiDion ban appeal 475 days later On Twitter, JiDion shared a screenshot of Twitch’s email to him, confirming that he would remain suspended over “extreme harassment.” “We have decided your account will remain suspended due to your violation of our Community Guidelines,” they said. Interestingly, despite the appeal decision coming 475 days later, Twitch still wrote that the suspension was “recent” – something JiDion’s supporters found to be strange. “A year and 6 months is recent as f**k, what you mean?” JiDion joked after fans mocked the streaming site. “Twitch doesn’t like black people very much huh?” another wrote, leading JiDion to highlight how they infamously sent Kai Cenat “cool shoes” after his record-breaking subathon instead of an exclusive contract. Others remarked how this was a “common Twitch L” and criticized the decision. Although JiDion may not be returning to Twitch, he has found immense success on YouTube where he’s grown his channel to over 7 million subscribers. He’s not the only banned Twitch star to make it big on YouTube either. Notably, Dr Disrespect and IShowSpeed have both dominated the site since being kicked off Amazon’s rival streaming service.

Twitch removes “bad” branded content guidelines following backlash TwitchTwitch is removing the “bad” branded content guidelines following backlash from streamers around the world. On June 6, 2023, Twitch revealed new branded content guidelines that appeared to control how streamers can advertise sponsorships that would have severely impacted charity and esports streams. It was quickly met with backlash, with Asmongold calling for a boycott while his org OTK Network threatened to leave the platform entirely. Twitch issued an apology just hours later but has now removed the guidelines from the website. Twitch says branded content guidelines are bad for everyone In a series of tweets on June 7, Twitch revealed that they are removing the new guidelines “immediately,” stating that they were bad for streamers as well as Twitch. “Yesterday, we released new Branded Content Guidelines that impacted your ability to work with sponsors to increase your income from streaming. These guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately,” they said. “Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income. We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors – you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business. “We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help in making this change.” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy commented on the situation as well, stating that the company “messed up” with its Branded Content Policy and apologized for the change. “We will continue to operate as we have been,” he said. On top of the Branded Content Guidelines causing backlash, Twitch also issued an update to its TOS that sees all users — including non-affiliates — banned from multi-streaming to “Twitch-like” platforms. The biggest creator affected by this change is Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, who slammed the Amazon-owned platform during his stream, calling them “tone deaf” in the process. Whether or not Twitch issues a change to their multi-streaming rules is yet to be seen, but we’ll be sure to update you if they do.

Twitch rejects Destiny’s permaban appeal in “record time” DestinyKick streamer Steven ‘Destiny’ Bonnel attempt to reverse his permaban on Twitch was met with a lightning-fast response from the purple platform, but not in the way he had hoped. Prior to his indefinite suspension for “hateful conduct,” Destiny was one of the most controversial figures on Twitch, getting suspended on multiple occasions. In 2020, he ended up losing his partnership for allegedly “encouraging violence.” However, with Twitch now under the leadership of new CEO Dan Clancy, the purple platform has begun letting permabanned streamers apply to get their accounts back. Although this hasn’t worked for everyone, Destiny decided to give it a go and received a response from Twitch almost instantly. Unfortunately, it didn’t go his way. Twitch speed runs Destiny’s permaban appeal During a November 22 Kick stream, Destiny revealed that his appeal had come up and he decided to apply right away. “I could tell right away that they revamped the appeal system, because I got rejected in record time,” he said. “It only took an hour to ship me the rejection email.” On X, formerly known as Twitter, Destiny tweeted a screenshot of his rejection from Twitch, reiterating that he had never had an appeal dealt with so fast before. “I’ve never gotten rejected on an appeal so quickly before in my life,” he captioned the post. Twitch’s email stated that after reviewing the details of his case, they decided that the permaban would remain in place. As a result, Destiny will remain on Kick, a platform he signed a non-exclusive, seven-figure contract with. Destiny isn’t the only big name to have their permaban appeal rejected recently. JiDion also had his appeal denied and hit out at Twitch for not allowing him to spread his newfound religious beliefs. Keep it locked to Dexerto for more streaming and entertainment news.

Twitch reduces sub prices in UK by 20% to £3.99 TwitchTwitch has announced that regional pricing for subscriptions will come into effect for UK-based viewers starting today, August 5. The cost of a basic Twitch sub will drop from £4.99 to £3.99. Twitch says “users will start to see the price change on the service within a week.” Twitch has explained that their regional price changes are to increase affordability for Twitch viewers worldwide and help boost subscribers for streamers. The Amazon-owned platform has also designed a system “to cover any shortfall in streamer revenues.” The “creator revenue adjustment incentive” guarantees 100% of a creators’ revenue for three months, based on their revenue from regular subs, gifted subs and Prime subs. “In any given month, over 850k people are now earning revenue from commerce or ads on Twitch,” they said. “with the total amount of revenue paid out to creators doubling between 2019-2020. The Twitch community watched over 1 trillion minutes of live content last year, with 13m people streaming for the first time.” Twitch has also confirmed that regional pricing elsewhere has increased subscriber numbers significantly. “Compared to the three months prior to local sub pricing, viewers are gifting five times more subs. More creators are earning sub revenue now, and more viewers overall are supporting their favorite channels.” Regional pricing is already in place in many countries around the world, including Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

Twitch reaches new agreement to protect streamers from DMCA strikes Twitch/UnsplashFollowing a long battle involving DMCA strikes, Twitch has officially reached an agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association to help curb accidental punishments against its content creators. Dexerto reported just a few days ago that Twitch was in talks with the NMPA with hopes to come to an agreement regarding streamers violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Now, we finally know the result of those talks. Countless streamers on the Amazon-owned platform have been hit with DMCA strikes for using copyrighted music, with xQc being one of the biggest creators affected when he received a strike and short-lived ban from the platform back in August. Twitch’s agreement with the NMPA In a September 21 email, Twitch announced seemingly great news regarding these strikes: “We’re excited to announce that we’ve entered into an agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) to build productive partnerships between Twitch and music publishers.” The email goes on to explain that they have a new reporting process in the works that allows music rights holders to opt into reporting certain uses of their music. Twitch claims this tool is “more flexible and forgiving” to creators who accidentally play copyrighted music on their streams. They will follow these steps when a creator receives a claim on their content. Similar to DMCA, the platform will review reports and check for completeness. – Unlike DMCA, they will give creators a chance to correct their offense by first issuing a warning: VODs and Clips that contain unauthorized music will be removed – If a live stream involves flagrant music uses like rebroadcasting music concerts and pre-release tracks, the platform may also issue a warning or penalty dependent on the creator’s history of that kind of use. – – Closing out the email, the platform issued another warning against playing music that you do not own the necessary rights to: “Doing so violates the rights of music creators and runs counter to Twitch’s mission of supporting all creators.” While it’s still unclear how the rights holders will handle the new process, streamers can check out Streambeats, Pretzel Rocks, or Monstercat for alternative stream-safe music options in the interim. Update, Monday, September 27: Twitch has sent out an email stating that Warner Music Group has joined the NMPA. This does not allow streamers to purposely play Warner music as of right now, but it should allow content creators to have less fear for potential DMCA strikes when it comes to music released by WMG.

Twitch pushes ad incentive program changes after controversial launch TwitchTwitch’s ad incentive program launched controversially amid discussions of the creator pay split earlier in 2022. The platform is aiming at making it more flexible, pushing out a swathe of changes across the coming months. Twitch has been locked in a battle with its star creators over revenue across 2022. After declining a rise in the 50-50 revenue split from subscriptions, the platform instead created a new “ad incentive program” with guaranteed returns for showing ads. While some creators got six-figure offers per month under the new initiative, many labeled it “disrespectful” due to incentivizing running a huge amount of ads — upwards of 8 minutes of commercials an hour — at the cost of their content. Some creators even got worse offers than existing revenue streams from ads with the new model in place. The platform isn’t backing down from its stance regarding revenue splits and advertising. However, Twitch is planning some major changes to the ad incentive program for 2023 to make it more “flexible” for creators. “We’re working to improve the ads incentive program for all of our community,” community marketing manager Mary Kish told Twitch users on November 17. This includes a number of changes, including offering reduced ad density options, so creators can opt-in without having to broadcast an excessive amount of commercials. “Some partners are finding their offers are featuring ad density that is too high,” Kish explained. “For offers this month, and for the next couple of months, we are offering reduced ad density options. “For example, you’ll see an option that is a couple of minutes lower than the ad density you ran last month. Ad density options will still be available, and we hope this helps. We want you to know you shouldn’t feel obligated to increase your ad density — you can also reduce your ad density and participate.” The platform also reminded streamers if they don’t meet the streaming hours requirement for their ad offers each month as well, they’ll be paid a percentage based on what they did fulfill. Further changes are planned for 2023 and beyond as Twitch tries to please its creators with the new revenue stream: “We’re working on an updated, more flexible version of the ad incentive program. We think this will help greatly, and we will have more to share early next year.”

Twitch quickly unban Jinny after controversial TLOU2 comments JinnyttyAfter being handed a two-week suspension, Twitch streamer ‘Jinnytty’ has had her ban lifted after only eight hours, following her public statement and apology. Jinny had been streaming The Last of Us 2 on July 24 when the ban struck, after comments she made about one of the game’s leading characters, Abby. The streamer said that due to her frustration with the character and the story, she “just wanted to say I don’t want to look at her anymore, but I put it in a wrong way.” The character, Abby, has a notably large and muscular physique, and Jinny called her transgender (the character is not, in fact, transgender). “I wasn’t 100% sure if she was transgender or not and I saw a lot of people talking about it, so without thinking I thought it was okay to use the word transgender to describe her,” Jinny said. In a Discord message, Jinny said it was “time to appeal”, and it appears that the appeal was successful, as her two-week ban was cut considerably shorter. ✅ Twitch Partner “”Jinnytty”” has been unbanned after 7 hours, 41 minutes, 58 seconds! ✅https://t.co/A1PQ07HW56#twitch #unban #partner #twitchpartner 🕘 — StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) July 25, 2020 “I really didn’t mean to hate on someone and I have nothing against transgender people,” Jinny continued, in her statement. “I sincerely apologize for anyone who got offended by it and I promise that in the future, I will be more educated and careful with what I say and do on stream.” Explaining her comment, she said, “I was just not interested in Abby’s story during the game. I thought it was boring and exhausting so I just wanted to say I don’t want to look at her anymore, but I put it in a wrong way.” I received a suspension on Twitch for commenting on a character called Abby in the Last of Us 2. I (cont) https://t.co/EB2gTmiO5A — TSM Jinnytty (@Jinnytty1) July 24, 2020 Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy for what it calls “hateful conduct” on the platform, and even first-time violations typically result in a lengthy ban. It’s unclear exactly why Twitch reversed its decision to hand Jinny a two-week ban. The Amazon-owned platform says that it always takes context into account when issuing community guidelines strikes, and streamers always have the option to appeal. Twitch does not comment on individual community guidelines violations to respect the privacy of users.

Twitch punishes Tfue, Nightblue3, Mendo, GrandPooBear for stream sniping Twitch / Instagram, @grandpoobear / Twitter, @TTfue / Twitter, @NightblooIn a whopping series of punishments, Twitch have levied out disciplinary actions, including bans and prize forfeiture, against four popular streamers: Tfue, Nightblue3, Mendo, and GrandPooBear. [jwplayer 91I9RIGm] The GlitchCon Twitch Rivals stream sniping debacle has a new round of offenders joining Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel in virtual detention for conspiring to unfairly dismantle competitive integrity and thereby breaking the Fall Guys’ tournament rules. Nightblue3, Lucas ‘Mendo’ Hakansson, David ‘GrandPooBear’ Hunt and xQc have all been temporarily banned from Twitch for an indefinite period of time and have been banned from participation in Twitch Rivals for six months. Unlike the others, Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney did not actively stream snipe in violation of Twitch’s rulesets. But, since he was aware of it and failed to report it to moderators, he joins all four in having to forfeit all earnings from GlitchCon. On further review of GlitchCon, we have found that, in addition to xQcOW, players Nightblue3, Mendo, GrandPooBear, & Tfue violated our conduct rules. Their actions will result in a disciplinary action from Twitch Rivals & for all but Tfue, a temporary suspension from Twitch. pic.twitter.com/b2gaqxHpcI — Twitch Rivals (@TwitchRivals) November 19, 2020 As shared by the official Twitch Rivals Twitter account, the platform’s team have reviewed the tournament’s incident and decided that all five aforementioned streamers “violated our Official Tournament Code of Conduct and Game Play Rules.” Further, aside from simply breaking the rules, the popular streamers seem to have disappointed the platform’s more general guidelines: “we expect all players to exhibit good sportsmanship and maintain respect for one another.” While xQc and the gang likely meant no disrespect and have, instead, been apologetic for the situation, it was nonetheless received very poorly. Still, most of that anger has been angled toward xQc and, although no one other than GrandPooBear has reacted to the latest punishments, his apology seems to have been accepted. So it seems my Twitch account will also be suspended for up to a week, same as XQC. I am pretty devastated by that https://t.co/WTXPwMqLzH — GrandPooBear (@GrandPOOBear) November 19, 2020 GrandPooBear’s community has been incredibly supportive in response to his distraught tweets. He has admitted fault for his actions in the Fall Guys tourney, particularly for pointing out a bean worth sniping, and apologized for failing to speak up against something that he believes was not in his nature. As far as replies goes, most echo that this is just too much drama for a game that maybe doesn’t need the full esports treatment and consequences. While he has confirmed his ban from Twitch streaming will last up to a week similar to xQc’s sentence, the punishments for Mendo and Nightblue3 have not been confirmed at the time of writing.

Twitch promises to take action after racist bots target Black streamers TwitchAfter several days of broadcasters petitioning Twitch to address the recent influx of racist bots and hate raids, the streaming platform has finally issued an official response, promising users it will “do better.” The hashtag #TwitchDoBetter has become prevalent on Twitter over the past few days. The phrase, coined by streamer RekItRaven, is meant to bring attention to the shocking amount of racist bots that have cropped up on the site, which bombard streamers of color with hateful messages in a seemingly endless tirade. Various bot accounts have managed to bypass Twitch’s pre-existing protocols in regards to Community Guidelines in several ways — one of which included misspelling the late George Floyd’s name as a means of harassing Black content creators, effectively going under the radar. Two days after Raven’s initial tweet coining the hashtag, Twitch has published an official response to the shocking and deplorable behavior from the creators of these bot accounts. Content warning: The tweet below contains offensive language. Reader discretion is advised. 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 In their statement, Twitch claimed that they “were able to identify a vulnerability” in their protective filters, and have implemented an update to better detect hate speech. The platform is also launching “channel-level ban evasion detection” and “account verification improvements” later in the year — meaning that it will be harder for random users to make multiple spam accounts. We're launching channel-level ban evasion detection and account verification improvements later this year. We’re working hard to launch these tools as soon as possible, and we hope they will have a big impact. Check out more on our existing tools here: https://t.co/Dku6eBhY72 — Twitch (@Twitch) August 11, 2021 “We’ve seen a lot of conversation about botting, hate raids, and other forms of harassment targeting marginalized creators,” Twitch wrote. “You’re asking us to do better, and we know we need to do more to address these issues. That includes an open and ongoing dialogue about creator safety.” Thus far, the general response to Twitch’s statement has been fairly positive, although there are plenty of voices calling for further action to be taken and other changes made. We’ve seen a lot of conversation about botting, hate raids, and other forms of harassment targeting marginalized creators. You’re asking us to do better, and we know we need to do more to address these issues. That includes an open and ongoing dialogue about creator safety. — Twitch (@Twitch) August 11, 2021 Twitch’s new policy also follows discussion of a “Social Media ID” system, which would require users to provide legal identification for opening any social media account, effectively tying everything back to a single person. While the UK government has dashed a petition asking for such a system, Twitch’s account verification process could be a step towards combatting hate on their platform — and perhaps act as a stepping stone for others to do the same.

Twitch psychic stirs controversy after advising viewer to end her marriage on stream Antphrodite, Twitch / FreepikAs one of the net’s most popular livestreaming platforms, it comes as no surprise that Twitch offers a variety of content, including magic trick streams, travels abroad, and even psychic readings – one of which is earning a streamer ample backlash. Twitch streamer ‘antphrodite’ is a “sassy psychic mixing Tarot with internet culture,” who streams his Tarot card readings for a live audience. Antphrodite even has a bustling YouTube channel and his own website, where he advertises such readings for relationships, career advice, and even offers celebrity readings – but one of his predictions is sending shock waves of skepticism across the net. 600https://twitter.com/antphrodite/status/1130597392418594818?s=20The psychic was in the middle of a stream on June 11 when he seemed to hint that one of his viewers should leave her husband, claiming that many of his cards were “reversed.” “I’m concerned,” Antphrodite said of the cards. “Listen to me. I’m not judging your relationship, I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but what I am gonna tell you is that I’m concerned about this person not wanting the best for you, regardless of what they say.” [Mobile viewers can click here to watch this clip on Streamable.] Antphrodite’s reading caught the attention of Reddit, which quickly criticized both the psychic and his viewer for using Tarot cards for relationship advice. “Maybe it’s best for the man that they get a divorce because, I don’t think he would want to be with someone that goes on Twitch to see what she should do in her relationship,” one user wrote. “I was so surprised that everyone stupidly played along with his bullshit when he was on Train’s podcast,” another said of the matter. “I was happy Destiny was the only one willing to call him out for the scammer he is.” https://www.reddit.com/r/LivestreamFail/comments/bzj6il/antphrodite_hinting_a_woman_should_end_a_marriage/Other users accused Antphrodite of scamming his viewers outright, stirring a major debate as to the legitimacy of Tarot and palm readings altogether, with the implication that someone would end their marriage over bad readings. Antphrodite is one of Twitch’s most popular psychics, boasting over 20,000 followers on the platform and over 43,000 subscribers on YouTube, due to his readings concerning internet drama and pop culture.

Twitch pool streamer banned after making out with someone on camera Instagram: kjanecaronTwitch streamer kjanecaron has been banned on Twitch after she made out with her friend in a pool stream. The so-called ‘hot tub meta’ on Twitch became immensely popular back in April, when everyone from big to small creators were using a loophole in the platform’s attire policy that meant they could wear revealing outfits on screen. Not everyone was a fan of the meta, however, and this led to a huge discussion over how content is deemed sexually suggestive, with Twitch creating an entirely new category named ‘Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches’ as a result. However as they have shown with bans amid the new ASMR meta, Twitch have not slowed down when it comes to taking action against content they deem inappropriate. Stream kjanecaron was banned on July 9 after making out with somebody else in a pool stream for a period of a few seconds, while wearing bikinis. On her Instagram story, the streamer initially assumed the ban to be the result of her showing a sexually themed pink candle on camera, in the caption writing it is a “one-day suspension.” However, she uploaded another video after adding that she might have actually also been banned for “kissing a homie on stream.” While some said they were, “proud of Twitch for taking action,” others said that the streamer “did nothing wrong.” So much thirst in this one bois! Proud of twitch for taking action! 🤣🤣🤣 — Dylan Neuman (@DymanMusic) July 9, 2021 As various different ‘metas’ continue to pick up popularity on the site, viewers and creators alike continue to debate what should and shouldn’t be allowed on Twitch.

Twitch promises big changes to ads to benefit viewers and streamers Twitch/Unsplash: thomasdebraekeleerTwitch is promising big changes to the way ads are served on the platform in the coming year, including a “snooze” button for mid-rolls and a warning that they are set to begin. Throughout 2022, Twitch has begun focusing more on ad revenue on the platform — going as far as launching a program to incentivize partners to play more ads during their broadcast. According to a recent blog post from the company’s Chief Product Officer Tom Verrilli, the platform is set to launch big changes to the way ads are displayed. These new ways will benefit both viewers and streamers alike, potentially creating an overall better experience. Twitch promises big changes to ads to benefit users In the blog post, Verrilli revealed that they are going to make ads “easier and better for you” in a few different ways. To start, they’re going to update the Ads Incentive program to reflect requests from the community that make it easier and more flexible for creators in regards to the number of ads the streamer has to run. Twitch is also updating how streamers will be able to disable pre-roll ads on their channel, making it so streamers can run three minutes’ worth of ads in any way they prefer in order to disable them for the next hour. Currently, this is only achievable by running 90-second ads every 30 minutes. On top of the new method of disabling ads for an hour, pre-rolls will no longer take up the full screen but instead will be displayed in Twitch’s “Picture-in-Picture” experience. Twitch is also exploring ways to give communities a heads-up when a pre-roll ad is set to play and will give viewers a way to “snooze” ads on a channel. All of this seems to be a definite improvement to Twitch’s current ad experience, which often comes at inopportune moments that may prevent the creator from interacting with a viewer to the best of their abilities. We’ll be sure to update you as they release more information surrounding these features. In the meantime, you can head over to check out more entertainment news and other Twitch stories.

Twitch plans to crackdown on streamers misusing embeds Live-streaming titan Twitch has revealed new policy updates to crackdown on streamers misusing embeds. Twitch is by far the world’s biggest live-streaming platform, boasting millions of daily active users. On October 20, thousands of fans and streamers headed to Las Vegas for TwitchCon, a three-day event for communities to come together. Kicking off TwitchCon, the streaming service’s CEO Dan Clancy announced various changes were coming during the event’s opening ceremony. One of the biggest announcements was that creators can now stream on multiple platforms. However, closing the ceremony, Clancy announced another huge change with a new policy update. Twitch to crack down on embed misuse At the end of TwitchCon’s opening ceremony, Dan Clancy explained that a small number of sites use embeds in a way that Twitch did not intend. As a result, Twitch will soon prohibit autoplay on embedded streams that aren’t a main part of a site’s page. “Twitch embeds are important for streamers and third-party websites to distribute Twitch content. However, we’ve seen a very small number of sites that use embeds in a way that was not intended,” Clancy revealed. He continued: “We’re introducing a change to our embeds policy to prohibit autoplay when the Twitch stream is a substantive or a meaningful component of the page.” “For sites that do not comply with this policy, we will disable autoplay for embeds,” Twitch’s CEO added, further stating: “The update rolls out November 1, and we will begin disabling autoplay on November 15.” Ludwig was the first to bring the issue to light, where in 2021 he called out gaming website ‘Fextralife’ for “stealing views” by embedding their Twitch stream on their site, substantially increasing their viewer count. Since then, several creators have spoken publicly about the issue, including the likes of Asmongold, Gothalion, and more.

Twitch updates policy to stop misinformation going viral on platform Caspar Camille RubinIn a bid to stamp out viral misinformation on their platform, Twitch updated its Community Guidelines to prohibit “Harmful Misinformation Actors” from using their services. Online platforms have put in increasing measures to try and tackle rampant misinformation from going viral. Services like Spotify and TikTok have ramped up efforts to stamp out misinformation; the former added new disclaimer messages to controversial podcast episodes, while the latter did the same in the form of video banners. On March 4, Twitch announced they’d joined the fray too after revealing they’d updated their Community Guidelines to prohibit what they described as “Harmful Misinformation Actors” from using their services. “In order to reduce harm to our community and the public without undermining our streamers’ open dialogue with their communities, we prohibit harmful misinformation superspreaders who persistently share misinformation,” the company stated. “We seek to remove users whose online presence is dedicated to persistently sharing widely disproven and broadly shared harmful misinformation topics.” The key word is persistent. It will not apply to individual statements and discussions, with the company stressing regular content creators won’t be affected. Twitch revealed the decision was brought about after partnering with “over a dozen researchers and experts” to understand how harmful misinformation spreads online and how to nip it in the bud on their platform. However, they assured users they’ll only enforce against those who persistently share widely disproven and broadly shared harmful misinformation topics — which will be reviewed by a dedicated team on a case-by-case basis.

Twitch permabans YouTuber IShowSpeed after sexist outburst on Adin Ross stream YouTube: IShowSpeed / TwitchYouTube star IShowSpeed, who has nearly 3 million subscribers on the platform, has been banned from Twitch after a sexist outburst on Adin Ross’ stream. While the star doesn’t stream on the platform, he won’t be able to appear on anyone else’s broadcasts. IShowSpeed has catapulted up the YouTube ranks in 2021, going from a few thousand subscribers to 3 million across the year. A variety streamer on the platform, he has become popular for his “way to do things”, although that has caught him in controversy on Twitch after he went on a sexist outburst while on Adin Ross’ stream. On Ross’ show “E-Date”, IShowSpeed was paired up with influencer Ash Kash to go on the date. However, things quickly got out of hand, with IShowSpeed allegedly threatening to sexually assault her. In one clip, Speed asked Ash “say if we were the last two people on Earth, and we had to reproduce to make the world continue, would you reproduce with me?” https://twitter.com/thtguybev/status/1469839690727579651 “No, because that would mean our kids would have to intertwine,” Ash stated. Speed then replied “who [is] gonna stop me? You’re not stopping me.” Adin Ross stepped in, but Twitch didn’t take his guest’s comments lightly. Twitch handed down a permanent ban to IShowSpeed for “sexual coercion or intimidation”. The suspension will only be lifted after a successful appeal. The VOD of the show has also been deleted from Adin Ross’ channel. Twitch’s community guidelines prohibits “sexual assault…or content that encourages or promotes it”. Serious offences, the platform states, “may be reported to law enforcement.” The YouTube star shared details of the ban with a simple one-word response on Twitter: “Bye”. https://twitter.com/IShowSpeed/status/1470883465507880964 It was also not the first time IShowSpeed — who is reportedly 16 — has appeared on Adin Ross’ “E-Date” show. He was a guest on the broadcast as recently as December 4. IShowSpeed’s YouTube channel is still public following the outburst.

Twitch permanently bans Fortnite streamer who said he’s a “child predator” Instagram/HydraSZN/TwitchTwitch has issued an indefinite ban to a controversial Fortnite streamer who joked about “liking kids” during a live broadcast. The Fortnite community was taken aback earlier in August when streamer HydraSZN began to make bizarre jokes about actually being a “child predator” and making incentive comments. In a clip that went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, the streamer called a player a slur after getting revenge on them for killing him seconds earlier. Moments later, he joked about “liking kids” and remarked, “Oh, I swear to God I do, on my life I’m a little child predator.” Now, Twitch has taken action against him in the form of an indefinite suspension that doesn’t look like it will be lifted anytime soon. Fortnite streamer banned on Twitch after “child predator” comments On August 24, HydraSZN posted a screenshot to X showing that Twitch had permanently banned him because of his content. The email stated, “We have removed your content as it included elements that could put you or someone you know at risk. This includes content that could encourage inappropriate attention towards people under 18.” In a follow-up, HydraSZN tried to appeal the ban, but Twitch stood by its decision, leaving the streamer very upset. The streamer, meanwhile, is putting the blame on a member of the community for “having a vendetta” against him after the clip spread on social media. “All cause some guy has a vendetta against me. I wanna quit, nothing goes my way.” he said. “I was on my way to partner too. I was so excited for TwitchCon and being partnered. It was a sense of accomplishment. Then a Twitch staff sees his tweet and decides to ban me today. I’m an idiot.” Since the ban, HydraSZN has decided to move to Kick and has not given up his dreams of making it big as a streamer. This isn’t the first time a Fortnite streamer has gotten in trouble after child predator comments or actions. In 2021, Twitch banned a Brazilian streamer after he was arrested for allegedly raping two children.

Twitch partner under fire for “fat virgin” rant aimed at fellow streamer Instagram / SighbertaTwitch partner Berta has faced heavy criticism after verbally attacking a fellow streamer during a live broadcast on the popular platform, labelling them a “fat virgin.” One of the benefits of streaming on Twitch is the ability to team up with fellow creators on the platform to provide viewers incredible moments and help each other grow. However, the relationships between streamers are not always friendly, as showcased on Twitter by @nessdies, a Twitch affiliate who uploaded a clip of Berta taking a number of shots at her during a stream. 500What did Berta say on her Twitch stream? In the clip which has been uploaded on Twitter, Berta addresses fellow Twitch streamer nessmarie directly, pretending to be her while on streaming on her own channel. “I’m nessmarie, I’m so fucking fat,” said Berta live on Twitch. “I’m a fat fucking virgin,” referencing the Twitch affiliate. When prompted to change the subject away from the comments she was making, Berta stated that she would be “fine”, because “I delete all my Twitch clips,” seemingly suggesting that this would allow her to escape punishment. Ness stated that there was more of this behaviour in the stream, but as Berta removed all the clips and deleted the video from her on demand section, there was no way to recover any more of the broadcast. I love when I’m the topic of a @Twitch PARTNER’S stream. pls do better Twitch. (there was way more but she deleted all vods and clips) pic.twitter.com/tuL3XBZbyV — ness (@nessdies) April 18, 2019 In the responses to the tweet, TBESteezy, who claimed to be watching the broadcast when this took place, stated that the verbal assault went on for “like 20 minutes,” and said he was banned when he called her behaviour “toxic.” She literally went over for like 20 minutes for NO reason!! And being trashed is not an excuse. Then i got banned for saying she was being toxic — Steezy (@TBESteezy) April 18, 2019 Ness says that she posted the clip as she is “really sick of getting harassed” by the Twitch partner, and has revealed that while tagging Twitch’s support team on Twitter will not get her banned, people can go to Berta’s Twitch page and report her there. So someone at @Twitch has replied and said that unfortunately bringing attention to the streamer and tagging @TwitchSupport will not get the user banned. You have to report them on their Twitch page. https://t.co/kryV319Y5s — ness (@nessdies) April 18, 2019 A number of people have voiced their support for ness on Twitter, labelling Berta as “vile”, with many stating that they can’t believe she is partnered with Twitch, and calling on the site action against her for her behaviour. Good on you for putting her in the spotlight! This kind of behavior shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere, let alone @Twitch. — Narujen (@naruj3n) April 18, 2019 She’s truly odd and just beyond disrespectful. Should be banned and don’t listen to her harsh words, just keep doing you and ignore that bs. Hopefully justice gets served. — Adam (@ZappTrapp) April 18, 2019 lmao these are the people who get partnered on @Twitch .. that’s actually sad. She even knew what she was doing since she said she can just delete the clips LMAO — C h r i s t a (@Whyte_Fang) April 18, 2019 Berta responds to criticism Berta has since responded to the backlash she’s facing for her comments, suggesting that she will delete her Twitch channel herself, tweeting: “Honestly think I’ll just delete my Twitch so the people who hate me will feel some happiness in their lives. If that’s really their only goal in life, then shit, it’s easy for me to delete.” 500https://twitter.com/SighBerta/status/1118907107103916034Will Berta be punished by Twitch? While Berta has yet to be punished by Twitch, it’s possible she will be, as her behavior breaks Twitch’s Community Guidelines, which are part of their Terms of Service. In the Twitch TOS, the company specifically states that: “Harassment is any content or activity that attempts to intimate, degrade, abuse or bully others, or creates a hostile environment for others.” The company can be especially severe on streamers caught badmouthing fellow creators on the platform, and have been known to ban channels for comments made by their proprietors on different social media sites such as Twitter. Read More: Top 20 most subscribed YouTube channels – What punishment, if any, Twitch will hand down for Berta’s comments is still unknown, but the company have been known to suspend channels for this kind of behaviour, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if they went the same route with Berta. We’ll be sure to update this article with any new information that becomes available.

Twitch partner Pedguin banned because of “suggestive” Winnie the Pooh emotes Twitter: pedguinTwitch streamer Pedguin, who has been broadcasting on the platform for a decade, has received a suspension from the platform due to emotes of Winnie the Pooh, which the platform has deemed inappropriate. In May, Pedguin’s ‘pedTub’ emote, which saw Winnie the Pooh in a bikini and a hot tub, was pulled from the platform. The reason was given as ‘sexual content’. This was surprising, given that it had previously been manually approved by Twitch, before being removed, and then reinstated again after another review. And this wasn’t the only emote of Winnie the Pooh to be removed, as Pedguin revealed that a series of other ‘gasm-style’ emotes had been pulled due to their suggestiveness too. ADD ONE TO THE LIST! PEDNUT JUST GOT REMOVED! Here’s a list of all our “”too sexual”” emotes that have been removed so far pic.twitter.com/hpeSKswxQZ — Pedguin (@Pedguin) May 24, 2021 Pedguin banned over Winnie the Pooh emotes On June 21, Pedguin revealed that after 7 years as a partnered streamer on Twitch, he was to be banned – though only temporarily. “It’s upsetting though as I don’t think I abused the system,” Pedguin said. “[Twitch] never told me what was specifically wrong with my emotes, I tried changing the suffixes and the emotes to appease Twitch without guidance, but alas, a ban.” It’s not a permanent ban. It’s upsetting though as I don’t think I abused the system. They never told me what was specifically wrong with my emotes, I tried changing the suffixes and the emotes to appease Twitch without guidence, but alas, a ban. pic.twitter.com/HeEs0yhs27 — Pedguin (@Pedguin) June 21, 2021 Fans of The Yogscast member, as well as those who simply thought the ban was unfairly harsh, began using the hashtag ‘#unbanpedguin’, in hopes that Twitch will reverse their decision. Twitch’s guidelines on emotes prohibit: Sexual content, such as depictions of sexual acts, arousal, gestures, aids, and attire – Nudity, such as depictions and imitations of nude torsos, buttocks, genitals, and anuses. – It continues: “Severe abuse of emote submissions, including severe policy violations and repeated submissions of content previously rejected or taken down, may result in a penalty on your account. Such actions may include: removal of content, a strike on the account, and/or suspension of account(s).” Pedguin has confirmed to Dexerto that his ban will last 24 hours, and he may face possible emote restrictions upon his return. Twitch does not comment on community guideline violations to respect the privacy of users.

Twitch partner banned for calling another streamer a “fat ugly bitch” Twitter: OCGinsuperable/ItsRachRyanTwitch partner iNSUPERABLE has been suspended from the platform for calling another streamer fat and ugly. He responded claiming it was ‘blackmail.’ Twitch streamers have, for the longest time, be commenting on others and their content. Some of them have a legitimate beef with other streamers, while others just make passing comments on content that they aren’t the biggest fans of. Just Chatting is the category that comes under the microscope the most, especially when it comes to streamers who toe the line of the Twitch guidelines due to the clothes wear, how they act on stream, as well as other things. On May 21, Twitch streamer itsrachryan and her friend were hosting a Just Chatting stream where, if a certain amount of subs was donated, they’d write the gifter’s username on their face or body. The stream caught the attention of fellow streamer iNSUPERABLE, who roasted the streamers involved. “If I saw the girl on the left dude, in a bar in Montreal, I would definitely skip on that s**t,” he said. “The girl on the right dude, we can talk about it dude. The girl on the left dude, she’s like the fat, ugly wing girl. You know like when you tell your chick, hey if you come to my party, bring your friend right, and she comes to the party, and that’s the friend she brings.” The clip and comments made their way back to the two female streamers, with itsrachryan sharing it out and calling for Twitch to act. “This partnered streamer came into my friend’s chat last night being more than just disrespectful and using our streams for his own content. People like this shouldn’t have a platform on Twitch or anywhere,” she said. I didn’t have the time yesterday but I do today. This partnered streamer came into my friend’s chat last night being more than just disrespectful and using our streams for his own content. People like this shouldn’t have a platform on Twitch or anywhere.@OCGiNSUPERABLE do better. pic.twitter.com/WR2PL3sZNc — rach 🍒 (@itsrachryan) May 22, 2021 Plenty of other streamers joined in her calls for punishment, tagging different Twitch Support accounts in the hopes of a response. iNSUPERABLE ultimately responded to the situation with a lengthy Twitlonger, stating that the girls had demanded money in return for them not reporting him to Twitch. “She kept going at me and roasting me and trying to shame me for what I said above and at some point, I got fed up and ended up calling her the words that I did.” he said. “I didn’t like how she was trying to ”blackmail” me into donating even tho I HAD donated.” Let’s give a bit of context on that twitch clip Read: https://t.co/JieufNokrh — iNSUPERABLE 🇨🇦 (@GGiNSUPERABLE) May 23, 2021 The streamer admitted that he wasn’t “in the right” in making the comments, but would accept any punishments that may come his way as a result. On May 25, Insuperable’s Twitch channel was suspended. Twitch’s community guidelines state, “Creators are role models and leaders of the communities they create or foster around them. Creators should consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; sometimes unwanted focus or attention can encourage others to escalate their behavior into abuse. For example, broadcasting other Twitch streams and profiles while insulting these users often encourages others to also direct abuse to the target. Participating in this activity can, therefore, lead to suspension of your account.”

Twitch partner leaks possible Twitchcon 2023 dates & location TwitchA Twitch partner by the name of Smirky has leaked possible dates and the location for TwitchCon 2023, allegedly finding it through a hotel booking website. Over the last few years, TwitchCon has been the premiere place for creators and businesses alike to get together annually and network their brands. TwitchCon 2022 marked the return of the physical event for the first time since 2019, bringing an insane number of creators together for the first time in years. A Twitch partner named Smirky has discovered possible dates & location for TwitchCon 2023, and fans are excited. TwitchCon 2023 dates & location possibly leaked On January 30, just days after Twitch streamer theotherjz posted the leak on Twitter, Smirky shared a link and screenshot to the Passkey website showing the possible location and dates. “Woah!! #TwitchCon in Las Vegas!? A link to Passkey was discovered with [tentative] dates for TwitchCon NA 2023. This was the same reservations portal for San Diego 22′ hotels. TwitchCon Las Vegas October 20-22, 2023,” the tweet reads. Since the tweet was posted, the link no longer leads to the TwitchCon page. TwitchCon 2022 took place on October 7-9, so the possible date of October 20-22 isn’t too far off from the company’s usual schedule. Las Vegas isn’t too far from San Diego, either — a place they’ve held the event for several years. Twitch hasn’t mentioned anything regarding this year’s event as it’s still several months away, so it’s safe to say that these dates and locations are just rumors until then. The event also takes place during the same weekend as the ever-popular When We Were Young music festival, which leads many to believe the listing was a mistake. However, it being unconfirmed hasn’t prevented it from quickly gaining traction in the community, with many creators sharing their excitement on Twitter. We just hope that everybody stay’s safe this year.

Why Twitch partner Knut has been banned from TwitchCon 2019 Twitch: Knut / TwitchTwitch partner and bodybuilder Knut Spildrejorde has been banned from attending the platform’s annual TwitchCon convention in 2019. TwitchCon is usually the place to be if you are involved in the Twitch scene as a viewer or streamer. Popular Twitch personalities from all over the world will descend onto San Diego this to meet with their fans, catch up with their mates. However, one popular personality will not be allowed into San Diego come September 27 for TwitchCon – Norwegian Twitch partner and bodybuilder Knut. Knut received an email from Twitch stating that he had breached Twitch Event’s Code of Conduct previously, and that he was not welcome at the San Diego festival. It was shared on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit by user ‘doyourworkyoufailure‘. Read more: Knut kicked out of TwitchCon Europe – “Hello, due to a violation of Twitch’s Events Code of Conduct, your ticket to TwitchCon San Diego 2019 has been revoked and you are banned from attending the event. Should you attempt to access the event you will be escorted off the property by the Security team. You will be refunded for your ticket within seven days.” This means the reason why Knut isn’t allowed to attend TwitchCon is likely related to his stream at TwitchCon Europe in April. During the Berlin event, Knut allowed his stream to be taken over by ‘Silker’, who was not a partner at the time. Silker ventured into a non-streaming area with Knut’s partner badge, leading Twitch officials to ask him to shut down the stream, kicking both of them out of the event. Read more: Knut tries to install Minecraft – This led to an event-wide streaming ban, which caught out the likes of Steven ‘Destiny’ Bonnell and Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys. The Norwegian was banned from the platform for a week in July after allegedly texting and driving while streaming. It’s unclear as to whether he will be able to attend the popular convention in the future, but at least for 2019, his plans to go to the US are on ice. Knut is an enigmatic personality on Twitch, quite far from the stereotype people associate with streamers. The Norwegian champion bodybuilder has streamed himself trekking around his home country, as well as playing games like PUBG, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Minecraft.

Twitch Partner criticizes algorithm after gifted subs go to troll accounts TwitchTwitch Partner ‘AnEternalEnigma’ condemned the algorithm after seeing numerous troll accounts get a gifted sub, despite the streaming giant saying that shouldn’t happen. Viewers on Twitch have the option to gift subs at random to a streamer’s community which are supposed to prioritize viewers and those who are active in the broadcaster’s circle. However, AnEternalEnigma found out the hard way this isn’t always the case as he claims the algorithm led to numerous troll accounts created in 2015 to receive the subs instead. Viewers are able to gift subs in bulk on Twitch. “Yo, @Twitch @TwitchSupport, let’s talk,” he tweeted on August 17. “Last night, a very generous viewer gifted 100 subs at the start of my stream. Unfortunately, your algorithm ignored non-subs who came to my stream early and instead gifted a lot of troll accounts someone made to harass me in September 2015.” Read More: NICKMERCS hilariously impersonates Mongraal – In most cases, gifting subs will actively hand out subs to viewers present in the channel first, before going into the list of followers. Yo, @Twitch @TwitchSupport, let’s talk. Last night, a very generous viewer gifted 100 subs at the start of my stream. Unfortunately, your algorithm ignored non-subs who came to my stream early and instead gifted a lot of troll accounts someone made to harass me in September 2015. pic.twitter.com/kY1FW2jNx8 — AnEternalEnigma (@AnEternalEnigma) August 17, 2019 On top of this, Enigma claims he’s had viewers come in who have never visited the channel before wondering why they’ve been gifted a sub. “But back on topic, the algorithm for community gift subs has gotten out of control,” he tweeted. “I’ve had people come in lately asking why they got a gift sub to my channel because they aren’t following me. Meanwhile, loyal viewers in chat without a sub get ignored. More transparency please.” But back on topic, the algorithm for community gift subs has gotten out of control. I’ve had people come in lately asking why they got a gift sub to my channel because they aren’t following me. Meanwhile, loyal viewers in chat without a sub get ignored. More transparency please. — AnEternalEnigma (@AnEternalEnigma) August 17, 2019 He made it clear that these accounts were banned after the fact, which is how they were able to get gifted subs in the first place. Enigma also touches on how tough it was to see the accounts show up again after all these years, as one of them was about his deceased father. “Not only that, but it was disheartening to see all of these accounts show up in my chat again, specifically the one regarding my deceased father,” he tweeted. “Also, thanks for totally ignoring all the reports I filed on these accounts back in 2015 too I guess? This should have never happened.” Not only that, but it was disheartening to see all of these accounts show up in my chat again, specifically the one regarding my deceased father. Also, thanks for totally ignoring all the reports I filed on these accounts back in 2015 too I guess? This should have never happened. — AnEternalEnigma (@AnEternalEnigma) August 17, 2019 Twitch has been under heavy criticism for much of 2019 whether it’s showing adult content in the Artifact directory, or promoting inappropriate content on Ninja’s old channel. With Mixer now becoming a more formidable rival, it could lead to better experiences for streamers all around.

Twitch Partner “Knut” banned due to DMCA takedown Twitch streamer and competitive bodybuilder Knut has been banned from the platform for the fourth time, citing a DMCA violation as the reason for his 2 day ban. Knut has been a notable presence on Twitch, both in his own stream and on other creators’ channels. Like many other online creators, tens of thousands of viewers gather to watch video game streams an other content. While video game streaming is popular, his Camp Knut appearances have elevated Knut’s popularity. Especially streams that took place before the controversy surrounding OTK creators like Mizkif and Rich Campbell came to light over the summer and fall of 2022. Now, the bodybuilder is steeped in controversy of his own following his fourth ban from Twitch. This time, he’s been banned as a result of a DMCA violation. Twitch Partner “Knut” banned for DMCA violation It isn’t yet clear what caused a DMCA strike, but a takedown notice will greet those who try to visit Knut’s Twitch channel. While some bans can be extensive, and force streamers off the platform for a long period of time, fans of the Norwegian streamer won’t have to wait long for his return to regularly scheduled content. In reply to a tweet from fellow streamer Strippin, Knut confirms that his ban from the platform will last for two days. It’s definitely a short ban in comparison to some others that get levied against streamers, but Knut isn’t looking forward to the “vacation” Same Thorne insinuates. Knut’s reply reads “2 days off will be hard :(“. Once the reason for the DMCA takedown against Knut’s channel comes to light, we’ll update this article with the culprit for his ban from the platform.

Twitch partner Cribazz banned for reportedly harassing women and LGBTQIA+ streamers Twitter: NotCribazz / TwitchNewly-partnered Twitch streamer Cribazz was quickly taken off the platform on June 3 after clips of the broadcaster harassing women and LGBTQIA+ streamers went viral. The community is calling on the platform to make the ban permanent. Cribazz, who has 14,000 followers on Twitch and averages around 200 viewers per stream, was elated to finally get his partnership on June 1. However, just 48 hours later, he was banned for “sexually harassing others” on the Amazon-owned platform, after several women and LGBT streamers came forward with their stories of the newly-partnered broadcaster. ❌ Twitch Partner “”Cribazz_”” has been banned! ❌https://t.co/hZ6ZtrWi98#twitch #ban #firstban #partner #twitchpartner ✏ — StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) June 3, 2021 Deere, a prominent drag queen on Twitch, highlighted Cribazz going into other channels and harassing content creators to come onto his own stream. His chat would flood their chat with sexist and homophobic abuse. “Take a look at the chat. That’s the community that’s being encouraged here.” https://twitter.com/dearDEERE/status/1400260830457786378 “It’s disappointing that we are constantly attacked and targeted.” He would also confront people on TikTok and Twitch, using derogatory language. “Why are you getting ready, you’re ugly as sh*t anyways. You’re ugly as sh*t anyway you f**king twig. Look at your f**king little pointy a** nose,” he said in one clip. https://twitter.com/HiDroOfficial/status/1400320176327905283 Others claimed he was also re-streaming other people’s content, something that is against the platform’s community guidelines due to copyright infringement issues. Cribazz denied the accusations. The community has called on Twitch to take harsher action on Cribazz, considering the platform is currently celebrating Pride Month during June. “I can’t count how many times I’ve seen people do this. Skimming IRL and looking for women, POC, etc to target and harass while livestreaming the whole thing,” Twitch streamer Pokket said. Some want Twitch to permanently ban the controversial streamer, given his current suspension from streaming will only last for seven days. Dexerto will update you if Cribazz’s suspension length changes.

Twitch outage leaves streaming community in shambles on January 3 Twitch is currently investigating an issue keeping multiple vital facets of the site from loading, making it impossible for users to find and watch streams. On January 3, many users reported that Twitch.tv wasn’t working as intended. On the home page, the featured section at the top was empty. Their followed streamers didn’t show up on the sidebar, and the only content they could access were clips from past streams. Further investigation found that streams couldn’t be accessed when visiting directories, and even though games would list the number of current viewers, those tabs would appear devoid of streams. This issue was acknowledged by the Twitch Support Twitter account, stating: “We are investigating an issue preventing multiple areas of Twitch from loading.” But without a way for users to access content, the platform was left in shambles. Twitch outage leaves platform useless Despite the site displaying live viewer numbers, there’s no way around this outage, making it impossible for viewers to access streams. Even manually typing in the URL for a specific channel will lead to a blank screen, with no way to access the different tabs for the creator’s page. With no concrete timeline for these issues, we will have to wait until Twitch resolves the loading problems or until we hear further from their support team. In the meantime, alternative streaming platforms such as YouTube or Facebook Gaming aren’t facing any issues at this time, so gamers can still get their fill of live content.

Twitch outlines new plans to address DMCA controversy on platform TwitchTwitch streamers have been hit with mass DMCA strikes in the last week, with many popular content creators close to having their channels taken down. The platform is now responding though, putting a plan in place to help content creators while protecting the rights of record labels. Starting on June 7, content creators on Twitch were struck with takedown notices through the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) on a scale like no other. Record labels and artists starting issuing warnings to streamers for using their music without the correct permissions. As the platform was grasping the issue, Twitch took their time coming forward with a statement. Back on June 7, Twitch said they “adhere to the DMCA,” but sympathized with content creators and said they were “working on solutions.” This is the first time we have received mass DMCA claims against clips. We understand this has been stressful for affected creators and are working on solutions, including examining how we can give you more control over your clips. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) June 8, 2020 They then backed up their June 7 statement with a new stance on June 10, as they look to not only please content creators on the platform, but the record labels filing DMCA takedowns. Twitch will be looking to expand the use of their music tracking software to delete any clips that may contain copyrighted music without penalizing streamers. In the future though, content creators will face penalties for using copyrighted audio. The streaming platform is also developing a mass-delete function for clips. However, they’ve said that such a function is “a few weeks” away, and asked content creators in the meantime to disable the creation of new clips manually. We value the work of songwriters, musicians, and other creative artists. As a company committed to supporting creators, we respect, and ask our users to respect, the intellectual property of those who make music and those who own or control music rights. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) June 11, 2020 They also clarified the rights of record labels, and ultimately, that the platform must abide by the DMCA. “While deleting or disabling clips can help, if you don’t have the right to music you are at risk of a takedown request from rights holders. It is entirely within the rights holder’s discretion if and when to issue takedown notifications,” the platform said. “We value the work of songwriters, musicians, and other creative artists. As a company committed to supporting creators, we respect, and ask our users to respect, the intellectual property of those who make music and those who own or control music rights.” Some content creators like Trainwrecks have reached out to artists directly to ask for music rights. However, under the DMCA, this may not protect streamers, as ultimately the artist might not hold the rights to their songs. We will keep you updated as more information arises.

Twitch & OF star Indiefoxx claims she was blackmailed with deepfake nudes of her Twitter/JenfoxxxyOnlyFans star Indiefoxx says she was blackmailed by someone who threatened to leak explicit AI-generated photos of her. Indiefoxx is back in the spotlight after finally returning to Twitch after a 2-year ban and it seems like nefarious individuals are trying to capitalize on her popularity. AI-generated sexual images have become quite a controversial topic as of late with many streamers having their likenesses used in explicit content without their consent. Despite her time away from Twitch, just prior to her first stream in nearly two years, Indiefoxx revealed that someone had tried to get money out of her through deepfake photos of the OnlyFans model. Indiefoxx blackmailed over explicit deepfake photos The Twitch star revealed she had been blackmailed in a post on Twitter where she claimed someone tried to blackmail her for an undisclosed amount of money. “So today, someone tried to blackmail me for money, threatening to leak AI-generated nudes of me,” she said, later adding: “I’m not kidding sadly.” Indiefoxx now joins an ever-growing number of streamers who have been targeted in blackmail scams. Notably, Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys exposed an influencer scam trying to get nude photos out of her by someone pretending to be from a lingerie and loungewear company. In the AI-area, however, a recent scam went viral for selling photos of someone who never even existed using the AI image generator Stable Diffusion. It’s not known if Indiefoxx contacted the police over this latest kerfuffle, but at least she didn’t give in and send money to someone trying to blackmail her over photos that aren’t even real to begin with. The use of deepfakes has proven to be controversial enough that TikTok and Twitch both banned their use on their platforms, but not every site has followed suit as AI continues to evolve each and every day.

Twitch offering $10k grants to streamers for new content ideas and features TwitchTwitch are offering their dedicated community members a great opportunity to develop new initiatives for content and features, with grants available as they search for fresh ideas to drive the platform forward. Twitch is already the premier livestreaming platform, with most of the biggest names in the space broadcasting there and commanding a large portion of overall viewership. But they’re not willing to rest on their laurels yet and are reaching out to their community to make the experience even better. As if streamers needed an incentive to grow their opportunities, though, the platform is also offering $10,000 in grants as a reward for the best ideas. As part of Twitch Past-Forward, which saw the platform celebrate its community with big streams throughout the latter half of July 2021, they have also announced Twitch Past-Forward Grants. Read More: Top 20 most followed Twitch streamers – With the aim to help streamers bring their content and product ideas to life, Twitch is offering $10k to a winning idea in each of the following categories: Content – Gaming: Do you have a new idea for taking gaming streams to the next level? Is there a tabletop game show or vtuber concept you’d test if you have a little support? – Content – Creative: Musicians, MakeUp Artists, Body Painters, Makers & Crafters, and Food & Drink streamers: do you have a project or DIY format you’d be able to experiment with if you had a little bit of budget? – Content – Other: Podcasts, Travel & Outdoor, Just Chatting, and other non-gaming/non-creative streams have almost limitless opportunities. We’re here to help bring your ideas to life! – Devs – Extensions: Extensions offer a boost to the viewer experience and we’d love to help developers get the financial support needed to offer new or upgraded extensions to our creators and viewers. – Devs – Twitch-Integrated Games: Are you a game developer who wants to further integrate Twitch viewers and streamers into your game’s experience? We want to hear what you have planned and help make it happen! – Of course, many of these are pretty open, meaning that almost any idea you’ve got should be eligible for consideration. Make sure you read the rules to find out how to enter your idea. So if you’re a part of the Twitch community and looking to make the platform even better, this might be your time to shine.

Twitch now allows partners to stream on rival platforms but there’s a catch TwitchIn an announcement to partners on August 23, Twitch has removed the exclusivity rules for partnered and affiliate streamers, allowing them to create live content on other platforms too. Previously, Twitch partners gained the benefits of the partner program, but at the expense of being allowed to create “live content” on other websites. For example, while a streamer could post YouTube videos of their stream, they could not livestream on YouTube as well as Twitch, if they were a partner. This is why some streamers, such as Nadeshot, opted to give up their partner status on Twitch, so that they could stream on multiple platforms at one time. Twitch removes partner exclusivity On August 23, Twitch emailed partners to confirm the removal of the exclusivity clause. “Starting today, you are now allowed to create live content on other platforms. This means you have more flexibility to explore how to use different, off-platform features to further build your community and interact with streamers off Twitch. “We still believe that Twitch is the best place for creators to build and engage with their community,” the announcement continued. “We also recognize that the digital landscape has changed since we first introduced the Partner Program and that many of you engage with your communities in many different places.” What’s the catch? This policy change could be seen as a response to some streamers opting to jump ship and move their streams over to YouTube. However, big-name streamers who have made this switch have signed deals with YouTube, meaning they are still likely bound by exclusivity on the Google-owned platform. However, the policy change explicitly states that streaming on two platforms at once, for long periods of time, such as an entire stream on both Twitch and YouTube at the same time, is still not allowed. Twitch gives examples of “short form mobile services” like TikTok and Instagram live as suitable examples where the exclusivity rule has been lifted. In addition, streamers could broadcast on Facebook or YouTube at a different time, just not at the same time as a Twitch stream. “Once your Twitch live streams end, you may live stream elsewhere immediately,” Twitch says on their FAQ. Streamers’ response to the news has been positive. “Big W” said InfernoOmni, a Twitch partner who is also a YouTube creator. Twitch is set to host a livestream on August 25 at 12pm PT (3 PM ET/8 PM BST) to go into more detail on the changes, and field questions from streamers and users.

Twitch now offering way to “buy” Affiliate & users aren’t happy about it Twitch / Pixabay / StickPNGTwitch has drawn the public’s ire once again, this time for offering streamers a new way to earn Affiliate – one that involves enrolling in a paid subscription to Monstercat Gold, a music record label that’s partnered with the platform. To say 2020 has been a tumultuous year for Twitch publicly might be a bit of an understatement; on numerous occasions, the company’s decisions have seen them face backlash from the masses on social media. Amid all of the controversy surrounding DMCA strikes and the like, the platform has now rolled out a new way to earn Affiliate status as a streamer, which gives you a subscription button, emotes, and a lot of other perks that partners get, albeit on a much less lucrative scale. The difference with this new path compared to the traditional one is that it’s behind a paywall – a $5 monthly subscription to Monstercat Gold, who partnered up with Twitch to offer this new fast-track to Affiliate. How to get Twitch Affiliate with Monstercat Gold To take advantage of this new path to Affiliate, all you have to do is simply sign up to the Monstercat Gold service and have it be active on your Twitch account for 30 days. Set up your Twitch account (if you don’t have one already) – Visit the Monstercat Gold sign-up page – Click ‘Join Monstercat Gold’ and follow all of the instructions to sign up – After your Gold account has been active for 30 days, go to ‘My Gold Features’ and click ‘Apply for Twitch Affiliate’ – Wait for a reply email from Twitch getting you started in the Affiliate program – Those who already have an active Monstercat Gold subscription for at least 30 days prior to this being announced can apply for Affiliate immediately. Twitch facing backlash for this feature Predictably, Twitter swarmed with naysayers of this idea lashing out at Twitch for essentially allowing aspiring streamers to purchase Affiliate status, something that others have had to earn on their own by meeting the platform’s requirements. As a streamer who put the time and effort into becoming affiliate I have to say.. pic.twitter.com/xaCksKUwrs — Dann (@DannJust) November 17, 2020 Wow twitch…Mixer tanks & you decide “hey, we also want to be a massive failure! Let’s tell streamers to mute their games cuz we can’t figure out DMCA, oooh and let’s also make our Affiliate program pay to play!” Legit don’t know if I ever want to stream on your platform again — geekdadvstheworld (@geekdadvs) November 17, 2020 Hot take. This is a dirty and disgusting move and drags the status of Affiliate through the mud. There has to be a better way to hype up a combo like this without just handing Affiliate out for some cash. Forget having to work to advance, just toss money at the problem. pic.twitter.com/yFy4tTeB7H — KensGobbleSpot (@KensGamingSpot) November 17, 2020 The ‘pay to play’ aspect of this feature isn’t the only thing that users have chimed in against – others have accused Twitch of pushing a narrative that feels like a false promise to streamers who don’t get many viewers. “Telling broadcasters who have 0-2 viewers that they are ‘closer to making a living’ on Twitch if they buy your product is misleading, exploitative, and irresponsible,” wrote ‘Fruitbats,’ a streamer on the platform. You have to realize that twitch has never cared about their content creators. They use the DMCA apocalypse as a way to farm profit — THUMP (@THump) November 17, 2020 However, not everyone has a huge issue with this paid fast-track method; others, like popular content creator chocoTaco, have pointed out that the requirements to get Affiliate are so low and easy that this new feature is of no major consequence. no offense to twitch affiliates, but the complaints about this are ridiculous. the requirements for affiliate are 50 followers 3 concurrent viewers and 8 hours streamed…not to mention buying affiliate status doesn’t get you viewers. — chocoTaco (@chocoTaco) November 17, 2020 Incidentally, this isn’t the first such option that Twitch has offered aspiring streamers. Back in March of 2020, popular music service, SoundCloud, announced a similar partnership with the streaming platform, allowing those who subscribe to any of their paid services to get a fast-track to Affiliate status. Interestingly enough, however, that announcement didn’t get nearly the negative attention the Monstercat partnership has received, perhaps due to the timing of this new one being in the midst of the DMCA controversy that’s taken over the platform. So, we’ll just have to see what becomes of all this as 2020 draws to a close.

Twitch plan launch of new site-wide currency to rival Mixer TwitchTwitch is reportedly working on their own site currency and is already inviting some streamers to sign up for the incoming feature called Channel Points. It looks like the internet’s most popular streaming platform is starting to feel the pressure from rising competitors as a Twitch currency would theoretically be used to rival Mixer’s Sparks. Mixer audiences can earn Sparks by streaming or viewing broadcasts, and can be spent for a myriad of actions such as enabling interactive games, creating “teams” on the platform, and much more. In an August 17 Twitter post, Twitch partner ‘Lowco’ showed a screengrab of a message to streamers notifying them of the upcoming Channel Points. “Channel Points is a customizable points program that lets you reward members of your community with perks,” the Twitch message said. “Including a taste of benefits typically reserved for subscribers.” It looks like there is already an option for some streamers to sign up and be the first to get instructions on how to use the feature as soon as they go live. At the time of writing, it’s unknown what specifically Channel Points will let audiences get or how streamers will be able to implement them into their broadcasts. Large Twitch streamers are already chiming in to express their outlook on Channel Points, as some personalities have been dying to have something like this for a long time. “Man, Myself (and many others) have been trying to convince Twitch to get a site-wide currency system for over FIVE years now,” Ben ‘CohhCarnage’ said. “The entire reason I have my own custom system is because they wouldn’t make one at the time. And here we are. Five years later.” Two years? Man, Myself (and many others) have been trying to convince Twitch to get a site-wide currency system for over FIVE years now! The entire reason I have my own custom system is because they wouldn’t make one at the time. And here we are. Five years later. :joyful: https://t.co/PB3STb53xg — Cohh Carnage (@CohhCarnage) August 17, 2019 There will naturally be a lot of comparisons between Twitch’s upcoming Channel Points and other structures from streaming competitors. While it seems like Twitch is late to the party on a currency system, with the amount of resources that the Amazon-owned streaming site has, Channel Points could be another hyped feature like Squad Streaming and more before it. Time will tell if Twitch streamers and, more importantly, viewers will adopt Channel Points once it launches, but if it rolls out with worthwhile applications then it could be popular among audiences.

Twitch apparently testing new feature to rival YouTube Super Chats, but with worse revenue split Twitch, YouTubeWith YouTube gaming coming up fast on the heels of Twitch’s streaming supremacy, it was only a matter of time before Twitch started switching up its style. Testing for a new ‘Cheer’ feature was rolled out today to select US creators, a feature that’s extremely similar to YouTube’s Super Chats. With parent company Amazon’s notorious money-hunger, in stark contrast to YouTube’s industry standard for creator pay, this move has sparked hot debate over revenue split. A brand new ‘Cheer’ system itself now takes clear design inspiration from YouTube’s ‘Super Chat’ feature. The primary way for viewers on YouTube’s livestream platform to donate to streamers. On Twitter, Zach Bussey revealed an email sent to select creators. Initially, it was believed the revenue split for this Cheer feature was “80% to the creator” and just 20% to Twitch. ⚠️ IMPORTANT UPDATE⚠️ THE 80% CUT FOR CREATORS IS ⚠️AFTER⚠️ FEES. THAT’S AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION THAT COULD MAKE THIS A WORSE SPLIT THAN BITS. pic.twitter.com/Ga4MtcCBEN — Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) April 20, 2022 This 80% seemed like a one-up on YouTube, which allows creators to take home 70% of Super Chats, and garnered huge interest initially, before users on Reddit and Twitter dug a bit deeper. “Hypothetical… If someone Super Cheers $1 and pays Twitch with Paypal. Paypal fees would be roughly 52-cents. Leaving 48-cents left. The 80-20 split comes in, so the streamer would get just over 38-cents. ~61% Capital loss,” Bussey explained. A distinction causing confusion is the announcement that the ‘80%’ advertised is an amount only paid out to creators after ‘fees’ have already been taken. However, PayPal has in the past clarified fees for such donations. In a statement to Dexerto in August 2021, PayPal explained: “Streamers with a PayPal business account accepting qualifying donations may have higher pricing, but if the transaction is below ~$20, and the merchant has applied and been approved for Dynamic Micropayments pricing for qualifying donations, the transaction rate would be 4.99% + $0.09. “Therefore, in the case of the $1 example mentioned previously in the article, a streamer would net roughly $0.86, reducing the fees on smaller transactions. The sticking point for many is that ‘fees’ is an unspecified term. “This isn’t worded very well,” viewers replied. “So I’m not sure if 80% means the Twitch fees are 20%, or if their fees are higher and you get 80% of what’s left. It says 80% after fees are subtracted. So if the fees are 50%, then you’d be getting 40% of the total bit amount used.” So Twitch is testing out this Cheer feature? Sounds kinda neat! It doesn’t force anyone to do anything new or different, just adds a little something to the already existing cheer pic.twitter.com/tf2s3f7Atp — 🍕 marpizza 🍕 (@marpizza) April 20, 2022 Further focus has been drawn on the ‘Cheer’ feature being a replacement for bits, with the email FAQ revealing “Cheering with Bits is temporarily unavailable in channels participating in this experiment. Instead, you can contribute with direct purchase Cheering.” Read More: Livestream viewership records – With Twitch bleeding massive names like Ludwig to YouTube, with other streamers announcing they’d do the same, it’s clear that fierce competition is continuing to brew between the mammoth streaming sites. Hopefully leading to a more satisfying experience for viewers worldwide.

Twitch reveals new Shoutout feature to “share the love” TwitchTwitch has revealed a new shoutout feature, now live on the platform. It gives streamers and selected users the ability to “share the love” and highlight notable members in chat, prompting others to follow their channel. Twitch has been pushing new interactive features on the platform over the last few years, aiming to make the streaming and chatting experience better. The Amazon-owned website has yet again taken inspiration from popular third-party tools and bots on the platform in launching a new feature, called shoutouts, on September 27. Shoutouts have been a popular community widget before now, with some bots enabling streamers and viewers to promote another’s Twitch channel in chat. Now it’s baked into the website via the /shoutout command. When you type it in chat along with another username, it will prompt others in chat to follow the shouted-out account. It appears in a drop-down box similar to predictions, polls, and hype trains at the top of chat. Users who get the shoutout will also be notified in their activity feed. Only streamers and their mods can access the shoutout feature in chat, however, to stop regular users abusing it. The feature has been positively received by the Twitch community, appreciating it being built into the service itself with better interactivity than the previous bot widgets. Twitch also revealed the previously announced raiding features, put in place to combat hate raids and harassment, would go live on September 27. Streamers can now set limits on who raids them, filtering by account age date, size of raid, and other parameters. The two new features in tandem should give streamers more safety while live on the platform, as well as opportunities to highlight friends and notable community members in a more meaningful way.

Twitch’s MontanaBlack gives opinion on potential Mixer move following ban German star Marcel ‘MontanaBlack’ Eris took shots at the Twitch by floating the idea of leaving for their competitor Mixer after recently being banned. Following in the footsteps of Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek turned the streaming world upside down after he also announced that he signed exclusively with Twitch’s competitor Mixer on October 24. Reacting to the news, German streaming star MontanaBlack took put Twitch on notice by giving his opinion on a potential move to the Microsoft-owned streaming platform, after he recently served a ban for a week on October 18. MontanaBlack takes a shot at Twitch MontanaBlack is one of the biggest streamers in the world, and even surpassed the competition to become the most subscribed channel on Twitch in September, according to third-party tracking sites. However, while serving a seven day suspension on the streaming platform, the German reacted to shroud’s announcement of leaving for Mixer, and hit out at Twitch by teasing that he could also make the move to their competitor. “Bald könnten die ersten Deutschen folgen,” he tweeted on October 24, which roughly translates to “Soon the first Germans could follow.” Bald könnten die ersten Deutschen folgen https://t.co/UT5cwYVAvW — GetOnMyLvL (@MontanaBlack) October 24, 2019 The streaming star was potentially issuing a warning to Twitch after his channel had been locked out for several days, following a week long suspension on October 18. On Twitter, the German explained he would not be able to stream after he used vulgar language while discussing FIFA on Discord with some friends. “I said swear words that don’t belong on Twitch,” he said. MontanaBlack is not only the biggest streamer in Germany, but in 2019, he became one of the top 10 channels on Twitch. In September, he announced that he had surpassed former CSGO pro ‘shroud’ in subscriptions on the streaming platform. While Twitch does not make subscription numbers public, the German streaming personality became a force to be reckoned with, so following shroud to Mixer would be an interesting move, and expand Mixer’s European demographic.

Twitch musician makes incredible song for TimTheTatman after massive host Twitch: TimTheTatman, ortoPilotA Twitch musician was absolutely flabbergasted when TimTheTatman hosted him with almost 100,000 viewers, and was so overjoyed that decided to incorporate the top streamer and one of his mods into a song. A big Twitch raid can be a game-changer for smaller streamers. It puts a huge spotlight on them and allows them to shine, often resulting in a bigger fanbase, more followers, and ultimately, more opportunities as a broadcaster. It’s not often, though, that you get raided by one of the biggest streamers on Twitch, gifted an audience far bigger than many on the platform could ever imagine. This musician took his opportunity, though, and absolutely smashed it, leaving Tim’s viewers seriously impressed. While doing his regular music stream, looping beats on Ableton and making songs out of them, ortoPilot realized that Tim had hosted him for just over 83,000 viewers, an impressive amount, even for Tim. Despite initially being left speechless, he finally thanked Tim and his head mod Wipz, who found the stream, before incorporating them into a song. The No Diggity remix swiftly turned into what viewers dubbed “No Timothy,”, with Tim and Wipz’s names chucked into the song to add some extra layers and show love to the popular creator. Tim’s viewers were clearly happy with the host selection, and ortoPilot more than proved his insane talent after being raided. While the talented musician might not go on to get over 80k viewers each stream, he’s definitely going to have plenty of Tim’s viewers keeping tabs on him, and it could be huge for his streaming career.

Twitch “monitoring” controversial gambling streams that could be illegal PixabayAmazon-owned streaming platform Twitch is closely monitoring gambling content, which has grown significantly in viewership in 2021, thanks to some big names taking part, and big-money sponsorships. Most notably, Tyler ‘Trainwrecks’ Niknam has been at the forefront of the gambling trend, and claiming that he has lost upwards of $2 million in the process. Other big names on Twitch, including the most-watched streamer, xQc, and rising star Adin Ross, have also done sponsored gambling streams. However, the trend has come under increasing scrutiny, both for its legality and morality. According to a new report, Twitch is keeping a close eye on the trend. In a statement to WIRED, Twitch said, “We strictly prohibit illegal content and activity on the service, and take action in all verified incidents of illegal gambling that are reported to us. Our Community Guidelines make clear that ‘[Streamers] must respect all applicable local, national, and international laws while using our services.” They also said that they were “closely monitoring gambling content,” and their goal is to create “a safe, positive experience for all users of our service.” Are Twitch gambling streams legal? WIRED’s report also states that “A lot of the gambling promoted on Twitch is illegal or unregulated and poses definite risks for consumers, vulnerable adults, and adolescents or underage children,” according to Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. Twitch’s terms of service do make specific mention of gambling streams, while rival platforms YouTube and Facebook Gaming prohibit streams showing gambling sites that have not been reviewed. Slots was the 14th most-watched category on Twitch in June, with names like Trainwrecks, xQc, Xposed and Yassou making up the top 10 streamers for hours watched. It’s also of note that Slots is one of the only popular categories on Twitch not to feature a custom-made image for display. Some streamers have now stopped any gambling content, now dubbed ‘gamba streams’ by the community, as they were concerned about encouraging viewers to get involved, especially younger viewers. xQc quit gambling streams after revealing the alarming number of fans who had used his sign-up code. Mizkif, who was offered tens of thousands per hour for a sponsored gambling stream, has also called on Twitch to take action. Dexerto has reached out to Twitch for comment.

Twitch meta shifts as ASMR with TikTok leggings overtakes hot tub streams Amouranth / IndiefoxxThe Twitch meta for increasing subscribers and followers is an ever-changing beast, but as we’ve seen already in 2021 with the hot tub trend, these changes in streaming behavior can go viral. In June, it appears to have shifted once again. The popularity of hot tub streams was a controversial subject earlier in 2021, with streamers stripping down to their bikinis to get more eyes on their broadcasts. Many channels did experience significant growth in that period, too, including IndieFoxx, XoAeriel, and Amouranth to name a few. Twitch’s Just Chatting section was created for streamers to move away from video games and dabble with IRL broadcasts. Though, it was taken over by jacuzzi streams throughout April and May, with some viewers suggesting the content was worthy of a ban. Conversely, the platform decided to open up a new beaches and pools category on May 21. They said: “While we have guidelines about sexually suggestive content, being found to be sexy by others is not against our rules, and Twitch will not take enforcement action against women, or anyone on our service, for their perceived attractiveness.” ASMR takes over Hot Tub streams on Twitch Many of the streamers that have jumped on the ASMR trend are also mixing it up with hot tub streams from time to time, though statistics in the last seven days do suggest there’s a much bigger shift at play here. As seen below, in the last seven days – at the time of writing – the ASMR category has racked up over 2.1 million hours watched, while the hot tub section lags behind at 1.8 million hours. This is a significant drop from the hot tub category compared to previous weeks. A massive factor in this change will presumably be so many high-profile personalities jumping on the trend, such as Amouranth who has 3.1 million followers alone. Amouranth, Indiefoxx & others hop on ASMR trend Just a month after the hot tub category was created, as Alinity previously predicted, the trend has fizzled out – and now seemingly replaced. The ASMR category on Twitch has proven to be the next destination for many of the streamers that benefitted from the previous meta. Now, they’re laying down while streaming in the famous TikTok leggings and “ear licking” their ASMR microphones. In some cases, a feature of the streams is to offer eye contact while licking the microphone for donations and subs. In the case of Amouranth, she offers 30 seconds of licking for every subscriber and a sub-goal for outfit changes. This is just one example of how streamers are using ASMR streams to grow their channels. Indiefoxx, who has over 800,000 followers on her Twitch channel, is offering a similar sort of broadcast as well. Also wearing the TikTok leggings, she offers 20 seconds of licking for each sub, but with donation amounts leading to different things. For example, $500 would be enough for her to write your name on her forehead, $250 for an add on social media, and $50 for your name to be written on her body. As seen on the screenshot below, too, this has been an extremely successful strategy – with over 9,000 people having followed her channel during that vod alone. Many of the vods for these ear-licking ASMR streams are being deleted after they have been shown live, too, meaning viewers must be online while they’re live to keep up. ASMR livestreams on Twitch have been popular for some time, and in that regard, there’s nothing new conceptually. That said, the addition of those uber-popular TikTok leggings and subscriber rewards for ear licking appears to be a winning formula. Only time will tell if this trend takes on a life of its own as hot tub streams did, but it’s certainly got a similar feel to it.

Twitch may have accidentally revealed Pokimane’s streaming future Instagram/PokimanePopular streamer Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys sparked rumors that she was switching to YouTube after announcing that her contract with Twitch had expired – and Twitch themselves may have leaked her decision early. On January 31, Pokimane announced that her Twitch contract had expired, saying that the “next chapter” of her career would be revealed on February 8. YouTube then began seemingly teasing a Pokimane signing in the form of a Wordle puzzle, further sparking speculation that she would be leaving the Amazon-owned platform. Now, Twitch may have just her decision slip with the announcement of its new Advertising Certification program, Twitch Gameplan. We are excited to launch our first Twitch Advertising Certification program, Twitch Gameplan An interactive learning experience, designed to help media agencies & brands level up their advertising on Twitchhttps://t.co/NISrUAIxg0 — Damian Burns (@damianburns) February 4, 2022 Did Twitch leak Pokimane’s streaming decision? According to Damian Burns, the Senior Vice President of Twitch Europe, Twitch Gameplan is an “interactive learning experience, designed to help media agencies & brands level up their advertising on Twitch.” On the announcement website, Twitch outlined its February 15 launch plans, which notably includes “exclusive interviews with our most followed female streamer Pokimane and Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park.” Could this mean that Twitch has already resigned Pokimane and that’s why she’s partaking in the launch of Gameplan? We’ll have to see, but it’s unlikely that want Pokimane to be involved if she just switched streaming sites. YouTube has been making plenty of big moves in recent months. Notably, they signed Dr Lupo, TimTheTatman and Ludwig to contracts with many more in the works. With Valkyrae resigning with them, Pokimane could be a huge addition to their ranks, and one of the biggest we’ve seen since Ninja and Shroud switched for Mixer. Still, this new development may put a switch to YouTube in jeopardy, but we’ll have to wait and see once Pokimane reveals for herself what’s next for her career once she makes her announcement on February 8.

Twitch meta fiasco escalates as men work their ‘Joy-Cons’ on censor bar streams Tectone | TwitchThough the ‘Topless’ censor bar Twitch meta has been a mostly female-occupied affair, the lads weren’t going to get left out. Men are now censoring themselves as they pretend to work their, uh… ‘Joy-Cons.’ Twitch has been a bit strange over the past few weeks. From the short-lived “artistic nudity” era to the various ‘topless’ and censor bar metas, the platform has been rushed with an influx of streamers who are pushing the community guidelines to the very limit. And, while many streamers embracing the meta have been those who keep OnlyFans channels or have specialized in cosplay and other forms of art that involve the human body on Twitch, average streamers that normally did other content have started to get in on the action. OTK streamer Tectone is one such streamer who decided to go live with a censor bar covering ban-worthy contents on his livestream. He claims he’s started a “revolution” and that other streamers should join in with their ‘Joy-Cons’ in hand. Streamers embrace censored ‘Joy-Con’ Twitch meta The ‘censor bar meta’ was a term used in jest as some of the platform’s top streamers got to the top by pushing the boundaries, but now streamers that normally wouldn’t dabble in this kind of content are using it to seemingly point out the ridiculous nature of people being “nude” on broadcast. Tectone is one such streamer who decided to play with his ‘Joy-Con’ behind one of the now-ubiquitous censor bars on stream. “I’ve started a revolution it seems. This one’s for all my g**ners out there. Men can do this meta just as well as a woman. Get out there and crank your hog gentlemen.” However, Tectone isn’t the only one. He may be one of the most popular streamers to do it, but he definitely didn’t start the ‘Joy-Con’ Twitch meta. At least, when it comes to putting a censor bar over bannable ‘Joy-Cons’. Streamer ShaneYiT did something similar on stream himself, although he had his girlfriend walk in on him with his ‘Joy-Con’ covered on stream. Things didn’t go too well for him. Then again, Shane got his butt waxed live on stream earlier this year, so this definitely isn’t the most extreme thing he’s done nor the first time he’s pushed Twitch’s community guidelines a bit. With the emergence of the ‘Joy-Con’ meta, it’s hard to say just how long it’ll take Twitch to figure out a way to crack down on suggestive streams. It’s a tall order, but the ‘Joy-Con’ meta indicates that things are coming to a head.

Twitch may finally clamp down on gambling streams in near future Twitch/ UnsplashTwitch may finally call time on hosting gambling content on their site as a new report says they’re in “the midst of a deep-dive” of everything surrounding it. Whether it be loot boxes in video games or casino slots and card games, gambling has always appeared on Twitch in some form or another – and some streams have been incredibly popular over the years. Given that Twitch’s audience skews pretty young, there have been plenty of concerns about advertising gambling – especially such high stakes and anything crypto-related – on such a widespread scale, with plenty of calls for Twitch to clamp down on it. While some streamers have ditched their gambling sponsorships, a number of top names like xQc and Trainwrecks continue to work in partnership with sites like Stake. However, Twitch is on the case somewhat. Twitch investigating gambling streams & content According to a report from Bloomberg, which took a deepdive into gambling on Twitch and how some viewers have been affected by it, the streaming platform confirmed they’ve got gambling content under a microscope. Twitch is currently “in the midst of a deep-dive look into gambling behavior on Twitch,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg, noting that the platform takes “any potential harm to our community extremely seriously.” Additionally, Twitch monitors gambling content “closely to ensure our approach mitigates potential harm to our global community,” and as such, has taken away the ability for streamers to share referral links to some websites. Though, many can still get around it with chat messages and other avenues of advertisement. The outright ban of gambling content would, of course, be the ideal situation for many viewers and streamers, but it’s unknown if Twitch will go that. Though, if they’re investigating things, then all options are likely on the table. It’s something we’ll have to keep an eye on over the coming months, especially as gambling streams remain pretty popular with viewers.

Twitch is making changes to refunds in effort to combat ‘chargeback’ spree TwitchTwitch announced they’re making changes to the subscription refunds process in an attempt to stop viewers from making illegitimate ‘chargeback’ refunds after 24 hours to troll streamers. For a long time now, a small portion of Twitch viewers have been exploiting the existing subscriptions refund process by doing what is known as a ‘chargeback.’ Essentially, they would subscribe to a streamer only to get a reaction from them and perhaps leave a text-to-speech comment, only to then request a refund within 24 hours and receive it without consequence. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. However, it hurts streamers as much as it hurts the platform. So, to stamp it out once and for all, Twitch has decided to change their subscription refunds process to make it harder for people to do it. Hey creators! Thanks to your feedback, we have revamped our refund process to better prevent misuse. This will help us protect your revenue while allowing legitimate refunds to be handled quickly for those in your community who need them. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) September 13, 2021 In Twitch’s revamped subscription refund policies page, which can be found here, they state that users can still cancel subscriptions within 24 hours. However, they’ve added a new refund review process to look at how often a user has requested refunds throughout their account’s history. And if they’re found guilty of trying to exploit the system, they could hand them a temporary or permanent ban. “Submitting excessive refund requests or attempting to abuse our refund processes is against Twitch’s policies and could result in limited access to products or services and/or suspension or termination of your account,” they said. Many believe it’s a step in the right direction. However, there’s still much anger directed at Twitch for not prioritizing taking action against the influx of hate raids and follow bots on the platform. The consensus is that while the ‘chargeback’ issue was worth addressing, it pales compared to the severity of all the hate raids – which should be paramount. At the very least, it might be the next thing on their list.

Twitch mass bans streamers in Middle East amid alleged tax evasion scandal Unsplash/TwitchPopular streaming platform Twitch has mass banned streamers in the Middle East, following allegations of tax evasion across the region. On February 20, 2022, Dexerto reported that Twitch streamers from middle eastern countries were reporting an issue with receiving payments from the Amazon-owned platform. Multiple creators have contacted the platform regarding the issue, and all have received the same response. Twitch said the payment issue is due to “a discrepancy with certain tax information provided during the onboarding process.” On March 10, Streamerbans began reporting on Twitter a mass amount of affected streamers being issued with a temporary suspension from the platform. We’re sorry for the huge amount of tweets, we’re turning them off for the near future. It does not appear to be a bug on our end, as the streamers do appear to be suspended. — StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) March 10, 2022 Banned streamers react Shortly after the mass ban, many streamers took to Twitter to express their distaste towards what happened. Drazy had over 13,000 followers on his account before the ban and was among the first to express his feelings on Twitter. He said: “It’s not a game to ban most of the Middle East Twitch streamers without clarifying the exact reasons or at least replaying on our emails with the solutions to the issue. Not having a Twitch Support in the Middle East is even worse.” In a second tweet, he called the situation a “joke” and he hopes that subscribers to those banned receive a refund. It’s not a game to band most of the Middle East Twitch streamers with out clarifying the exact reasons or at least replaying on our emails with the solutions to the issue and not having a Twitch Support in the Middle East is even worse @TwitchSupport #TwitchBand_ME_Streamers — Drazy🧪 (@idrazyy) March 10, 2022 iShark187 posted a screenshot of the email they received after getting banned, which states that it was due to a “community guidelines violation.” The translated tweet says: “It is enough that they stopped the world’s money for almost two months. And now it’s 3 days!!!” ما يكفي انهم وقفو فلوس العالم شهرين تقريباً والحين سسبند 3 ايام !!! خيير pic.twitter.com/So5mc5prZH— Louay (@lilshark_187) March 10, 2022 With a number of allegations in the Middle Eastern region, it may be just a matter of time before Twitch makes an official comment on the matter.

Twitch makes huge emote change to let streamers support artists TwitchTwitch has introduced a major update for emotes that allows streamers to acknowledge the artists who created them. Emotes can give each Twitch channel their own unique feel, and almost become a calling card of sorts for streamers’ unique communities. Now, after a new update, broadcasters will finally be able to give credit and shoutout the artists who created these functional works of art. Twitch adds huge emote update In an update on May 17, Twitch announced they are adding a way to credit the artist who created each individual emote, and a way to link to their Twitch profile, as well. Now, when you go to upload an emote, there’s an area where you can enter the Twitch name of the artist who made it. Once entered, that artist’s name will pop up along with all the other info. The move seemed to be popular on Twitter as well, with emote artists celebrating the change as a definite positive. Emotes are great. But the artists who make them are the real legends. Now, creators can attribute emotes to individual artists and grant them the new Artist Badge. Start adding your emote artists today. Learn more: https://t.co/KgKDNJuxPj pic.twitter.com/TRviqFtFiP — Twitch (@Twitch) May 17, 2022 Not only can artists be credited on the emotes info page, but there’s also a brand new Twitch badge that artists can add to their profile, indicating they made an emote for that streamer. Creating Twitch emotes can be a great source of revenue for artists as well, so this really is a win-win that will hopefully encourage more support for artists on the site.

Twitch makes u-turn on Overwatch streamer Fareeha’s ban Twitch has reduced the ban placed on streamer Fareeha Andersen after she was banned for “engaging in hateful conduct against a person or group of people,” following comments she made about South American and European Overwatch players. Fareeha had been initially banned for 30 days with a community guidelines strike against her account for the comments she made during her February 7 stream – labeling South American players as ‘shit.’ She had apologized for her actions in a lengthy and detailed TwitLonger, but seemed surprised when she posted a screenshot of the email she received from Twitch notifying her of the ban. However, she won’t have to wait as long as first thought before returning to the platform. After plenty of public outcry, the severity of the ban and its length has been toned down – showing a u-turn rarely seen from Twitch. “I’ll see you guys live on twitch in four days,” Fareeha revealed in a simple tweet accompanied by a partying emoji. I’ll see you guys live on twitch in four days :partying: — Fareeha (@FareehaAndersen) February 15, 2019 There has been plenty of support – and resistance – for Fareeha having received a ban in the first place. Esports journalist Richard Lewis tweeted his disbelief about the suspension: “What a fucking dumb take this is. You can’t say players from a region are shit at video games because it’s ‘hate speech?’” What a fucking dumb take this is. You can’t say players from a region are shit at video games because it’s “”hate speech?”” That’s what you’re agreeing with. You’re also saying anyone with even a modest following must adhere to a very different set of rules to everyone else. Moron. — Richard Lewis (@RLewisReports) February 15, 2019 As documented by esports insider Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau on Twitter, a South American Discord server took over Fareeha’s Twitch chat and was rife with “harassing, griefing and [stream] sniping.” The streamer even addressed that fact in her TwitLonger, stating that she had to defend herself as she was receiving sexist and homophobic comments. She added: “I call them out on it, I get aggressive and stand up for myself because if I don’t, who will? This is the aggression/anger that people might be talking about, but was honestly only in self-defense. “None of this is intended as a means to excuse my behavior, but I do want to have my side of the story out there, y’know?” I’m genuinely sorry, I fucked up. Here’s how… Read: https://t.co/uaW0u3hOTr — Fareeha (@FareehaAndersen) February 8, 2019 While Fareeha should have her account reinstated within the next few days, there is currently no word on the community guideline strike that Twitch handed out. Twitch has often operated on a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ basis – streamers have been banned permanently from the platform for receiving three. As Fareeha did not state that her strike had been removed, it seems likely that it will remain.

Twitch makes big Partner Plus update after backlash to 70/30 sub split program TwitchTwitch has announced a big update to its Partner Plus program to give more streamers the chance to qualify. As the streaming wars wage on, Twitch has been under constant attacks by Kick and other platforms for offering a better sub-split, resulting in the Amazon-owned company making some changes. Back in June, the streaming site launched Partner Plus, which finally gave certain streamers a 70/30 split. There was just one problem, though. Only 2.5% of partners actually qualified by maintaining 350 recurring paid subscriptions for three months in a row. On August 28, Twitch finally responded to criticisms of the new program by making some changes to how progress is calculated in order for more streamers to qualify. Twitch update eases qualifications for Partner Plus program In an update on X, formerly known as Twitter, Twitch revealed that going forward, Partner Plus will put extra emphasis on Tier 3 subs. Previously, streamers needed 350 recurring paid subs, but now the sub count has been replaced with “points” that are determined sub tiers. “We’re updating how we calculate progress toward the Partner Plus program. To recognize deeper support from your community, Tier 1, 2, and 3 subs will earn you 1, 2, and 6 points respectively towards qualifying for the program,” Twitch explained. Basically, if you have one Tier 3 sub and four Tier 1 subs, you’ll have ten points. Under the previous system, you would only have five. This new method makes it a lot easier to reach the 350-goal mark. “A total of 350 Partner Plus points must be maintained for three consecutive months to qualify for the Partner Plus program. Partner Plus points can be accumulated via any combination of recurring paid Tier 1/2/3 subscriptions,” the site said. In the comments, community members seemed pleased with the decision, calling it a “win” for Twitch and “progress in the right direction.” We’ll have to see how many streamers now qualify with the changes or if another update is implemented in the future. In meantime, keep it locked to Dexerto for everything in the streaming world.

Twitch makes finding other creators easier with simple collab feature TwitchTwitch has announced a simple feature to help streamers easily share who they’re collaborating with. Users can now tag others in titles and link out to their respective Twitch channels, culling the need for chat commands and other tools. Twitch has tried to implement a number of changes to make it easier for streamers to collaborate with one another. From the “Guest Star” feature to other smaller community-building ones, it’s been a big emphasis for the platform. They’re continuing that growth with a new collab feature, making it easier to find other creators during collaborations. Streamers can now tag other streamers in their stream titles. The tags will be interactive — if a user mouses over one, they will see a pop-up of the streamer’s details and a call-to-action to check out their channel. “You will be able to tag other channels and creators right in your stream titles,” community marketing manager Mary Kish said on November 17. “Hovering over the tag will provide users’ channel info to pop up, and it will allow viewers to go directly to that tagged channel to check them out.” The feature has pleased many, who previously relied on commands to do so. “It happens all the time where you’re watching a stream and there’s four people and you’re like ‘they’re all hilarious, I want to follow them,’” fellow community marketing manager ‘RayApollo’ said. “You have to go quickly find them in chat though, or a streamer has to make a command for the mods to put in. “Now you can put it in the title and it’s right there. It seems like such a simple thing, but giving creators this simple tool to tag other creators they’re collaborating with, without disrupting immersion — it’s amazing.” The feature will launch sometime in December 2022.

Twitch loses lawsuit to banned streamer PhantomL0rd TwitchFormer Twitch streamer James ‘PhantomL0rd’ Vargas has won his lawsuit against the site for banning him back in 2016, but he’s received much less than the $35 million settlement he was originally seeking. Vargas was banned by Twitch all the way back in 2016 during the site’s crackdown on CSGO gambling streams. Twitch said at the time of the ban that he was misleading viewers in regards to skin gambling in CSGO. The streamer wholeheartedly denied all of it and sued Twitch, seeking $35 million in damages for removing him from the platform for “unsubstantiated, false accusations,” with the court battle beginning in 2019. During the lengthy proceedings, lawyers for Twitch tried to cap the amount of money Vargas could receive at $50,000 from the outcome of the lawsuit, but the court decided not to put a limit on the amount he would get if he won – which he officially did on April 23. In the end, PhantomL0rd won his lawsuit on all counts, receiving $20,720.34 in total damages from Twitch according to court documents — a win for sure, though not exactly the $35 million he was originally going for. However, based on his reaction to the verdict on Twitter, monetary gains don’t seem to have been his main reason for the lawsuit: Sending a message was. “I WON! Twitch LOST EVERYTHING, including the fraud claim against me for the CSGOShuffle allegations!” PhantomL0rd posted on Twitter. “This is a win for ALL streamers! Twitch can’t bully, lie & treat streamers unfairly the way they have for years!” I WONNNNNNNNNNNNN!!! I WON MY LAWSUIT VS TWITCH ON ALL COUNTS!!!!! Twitch LOST EVERYTHING, including the fraud claim against me for the CSGOShuffle allegations!!! This is a win for ALL streamers! Twitch can’t bully, lie & treat streamers unfairly the way they have for years!!! pic.twitter.com/G0gxqiBkRQ — PhantomL0rd (@PhantomL0rd) April 23, 2021 Twitch has yet to put out a statement on the outcome of the lawsuit, and it’s unknown if they will considering things didn’t turn out in their favor, but we’ll update this story if and when they do. PhantomL0rd, and any other streamer that feels they’ve been unjustly punished by the site, definitely celebrated the results, since it’s not often a streamer takes on Twitch over a ban and actually wins.

Twitch leak reveals ‘do not ban’ list with top streamers on it Instagram, RiceGum/TwitchAmong the items leaked in Twitch’s recent security breach is a ‘do not ban’ list featuring the likes of streamers Tyler1 and Ricegum. Twitch recently had a massive security breach which included important parts of the website being leaked online. Some of the leaked items are the website’s source code, creator revenue, and a ‘do not ban’ list that seems to offer certain creators immunity from being instantly suspended after a violation. It’s unknown how up-to-date the list is, but it seems to list various creators along with a reason why they shouldn’t be instantly banned if they commit a violation. Twitch ‘do not ban’ list leaked Posted in Asmongold’s subreddit on October 7, the list shows streamers like DJWheat, Ricegum, and lolTyler1. Alongside each person on the list, it says: “reason,” with a reason specific to each creator. One person featured on the list is Emmett Shear — co-founder and CEO of TwitchTV — whose username ‘Sarbandia’ is listed with a reason: “CEO \/ STAFF (Do not ban for literally any reason)” He’s not the only big name that’s on the ‘do not ban’ list, as Tyler1 and Ricegum both appear on the list for similar reasons: “Do not suspend; escalate violations to (redacted)@twitch.tv.” With staff being told to escalate both creators to a specific staff member, it seems as if the platform gives them special treatment when they are in violation of a rule. Listed in the reasons for both Tyler1 and Ricegum are two employee emails, both of which were read out loud on stream by the political streamer, Destiny. Just a day after he was clipped sharing the employee emails, he was banned from the platform for allegedly sharing personal information. Judging by the screenshot, there appears to be more to the ‘do not ban’ list. We’ll have to wait to see whether or not any more of it gets leaked to the public.

Twitch lose appeal in PhantomLord case, potential damages remain uncapped Court documents from the ongoing lawsuit between streaming platform Twitch and James ‘Phantomlord’ Varga show Twitch have lost their appeal to prevent Varga from claiming more than $50,000 in damages. The amount was stipulated in a limited liability clause in the contracts that Varga had signed with Twitch but was subsequently ruled “unconscionable” by the Superior Court of California. As we reported last month, Twitch immediately filed an appeal against the ruling. Still, that appeal has now been ruled unsuccessful, meaning Varga and his legal team may now pursue whatever amount in damages they deem pertinent. The rationale for the decision was presented by Judge of The Superior Court Curtis E.A. Karnov. The ruling does acknowledge that some of the legal arguments presented by Varga’s team were strange, most notably that the clause was a “surprise” when Varga himself never reviewed the agreement at any point. Despite this, the court upheld the findings of unconscionability on the following grounds. First, the court ruled that there was an element of oppression to Varga’s signing of the contract. “Varga reasonably could have concluded, and probably did as a result of his call with [Twitch employees] that he could not have maintained his popularity for long without Twitch. “By the time of the 2014 amendment, Own3d was gone, and there were no reasonable alternatives to Twitch for one intent on becoming or maintaining status as a top streamer. This weighs in favor of a finding of oppression.” Secondly, the court found that Twitch did not provide a solid justification for the existence of the limited liability clause in the first place. In their arguments, they cited Darnaa, LLC v Google LLC as a case that explained why such limited liability clauses were necessary. The Judge states this case isn’t adequate and makes no such argument, instead only presenting “justification for the fact that the parties have different obligations under the indemnification clause of the contract.” It concludes that the argument failed to demonstrate “a valid commercial need” for the existence of the liability clause. Crucially the contract was found to be substantively unconscionable, meaning the contract was objectively unfair, on the basis that Varga’s monthly income was between $5000 or $10,000, meaning a limit of $50,000 in potential damages is incommensurate with that. The court rejected the arguments presented by Twitch that hypothetical unconscionability should not be considered. “From a practical point of view… limiting recovery to $50,000 virtually kills off the odds of a suit against Twitch at all,” the court concluded. “The agreement doesn’t appear to have an attorney fees clause, and few – if any – lawyers would take on a contingency case against Twitch for some reasonable percentage of $50,000. The cap is unconscionable.” While a blow to Twitch, this ruling has no impact on whether or not the court will later find if Varga had violated his side of the agreement when the proceedings continue. Both parties are now in discussion as to how the case will proceed.

Twitch launches YouTooz collectible figures based on three popular emotes Twitch/YouToozTwitch has partnered with YouTooz to create three collectible figures based on the popular Kappa, Hey Guys, and CoolStoryBob emotes. As Twitch continues to gain popularity, so do some of the emotes on the platform. So popular, in fact, that websites like BTTV have brought them over to YouTube Gaming as they continue to sign exclusive content with some of the internet’s top talent. Now, Twitch has partnered with YouTooz to release collectible figures for three of the most popular emotes available on the site. Twitch reveals YouTooz figures based off emotes Announced on September 30, 2022, Twitch posted tweets with videos showing off each of the three emotes. For Kappa, they showed off a rather intense monster truck video and said: “Sarcastic, fantastic, and a familiar sight in chat.” The Hey Guys emote video shows the YouTooz figure doing a wide variety of activities. It reads: “Give a wave to your new emote-turned toy-turned new best friend.” Give a wave 👋 to your new emote-turned toy-turned new best friend. — Twitch (@Twitch) September 30, 2022 Get the HeyGuys @youtooz collectible now: https://t.co/1XH9pPrbaA pic.twitter.com/wPWRsvSa37 The Cool Story Bob video shows the iconic Bob Ross design and shows a variety of paintings before it goes on a few different adventures. A song forever stuck in our head. An emote forever stuck in our hearts. — Twitch (@Twitch) September 30, 2022 Get the CoolStoryBob Youtooz collectible now: https://t.co/1XH9pPrbaA pic.twitter.com/kfJoaYsglg How to buy Twitch YouTooz collectible figures With each one coming in at five inches tall, the emotes are available on Twitch’s Amazon store. Here are the links to buy them: Twitch x YouTooz HeyGuys Emote at Amazon US – Twitch x YouTooz Kappa Emote at Amazon US – Twitch x YouTooz CoolStoryBob Emote at Amazon US – If you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.

Twitch responds to leak revealing earnings of top streamers and more Twitch/Unsplash: Giorgio TrovatoA Twitch leak has surfaced, which claims to reveal a huge amount of sensitive information including passwords and previous versions of the website. Perhaps biggest of all, however, was the earnings of popular streamers. Twitch earnings are always kept somewhat under wraps. While viewers can figure out rough ballpark figures from a streamer’s number of subscribers, it’s nearly impossible to tally up the overall totals when including other revenue such as bits and ad revenue. This leak, though, could completely blow that open, with precise figures for the biggest streamers since September 2019. It should be noted that this data only claims to be for revenue directly from Twitch, so it won’t include donations, sponsorships, or merch sales. If accurate, it definitely makes for interesting reading regarding who the highest earners really are. Dexerto has asked multiple streamers featured on the list if the numbers are accurate, with mixed responses. Some streamers have indicated that the leaked figures were almost exact for them, while others said they were incorrect and did not line up. Leak reveals Twitch streamer earnings The leak first popped up on 4chan, and immediately started doing the rounds on social media and throughout the community. Some users have taken to gathering all the data and provided a list, with streamers ranked with their rumored earnings before tax and after Twitch’s cut. Read More: Top 10 most viewed Twitch streamers – CriticalRole tops the list with an alleged $9.6m earned in those two years. It also sees the totals of other popular streamers like Asmongold ($2.5m), NICKMERCS (~$5.1m) and xQc (~$8.5m). The top twenty appears below. Twitch leak: Highest earning streamers Twitch streamers’ recent monthly earnings Another list, though, breaking down each streamer’s monthly earnings for September 2021, does not quite align so precisely with some of those figures above. For example, the list below sees Asmon earning $141k in Sept 2021, which over 24 months totals around $3.4m. Of course, that $141k won’t be the same every month, but there’s a notable disparity between $3.4m and $2.5m. Here’s a more comprehensive list of leaked Twitch payouts (I will keep updating this thread as more things come out). pic.twitter.com/15JItvp6l4 — KnowSomething (@KnowS0mething) October 6, 2021 Twitch acknowledges “breach” Twitch has since confirmed that a breach did take place, and that they are working “with urgency” to understand it’s extent. In a blog post update on October 7, the Amazon-owned platform also shared the reason behind the hack: “We have learned that some data was exposed to the internet due to an error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party. “Our teams are working with urgency to investigate the incident.” Were passwords, credit card details hacked? During their investigation, Twitch focused on confirming that no private data, including login details, passwords, and credit card numbers were lost, and could potentially surface in any further leaked torrents. They have confirmed there were no obvious breaches there. “At this time, we have no indication that login credentials have been exposed,” Twitch admins wrote. “Additionally, full credit card numbers are not stored by Twitch, so full credit card numbers were not exposed.” Our investigation is ongoing, and we are in the process of analyzing all of the relevant logs and data to assess actual impact. For an update see https://t.co/mp8wndXv03 — Twitch (@Twitch) October 7, 2021 What else was leaked? As well as earnings and account details (remember to change your password!), another major leak was an apparent Steam competitor. Codenamed Vapor, the platform “Seems to integrate most of Twitch’s features as well as a bunch of game-specific support like Fortnite and PUBG.” Grabbed Vapor, the codename for Amazon’s Steam competitor. Seems to intigrate most of Twitch’s features as well as a bunch of game specific support like fortnite and pubg. Also includes some Unity code for a game called Vapeworld, which I assume is some sort of VR chat thing. pic.twitter.com/4KeeEOspyQ— Sinoc (@Sinoc229) October 6, 2021 What this looks like down the line remains to be seen, but it will definitely be interesting to see how they aim to truly compete with Steam if this is true. An anonymous company source has reportedly told VGC that the leaked data is legitimate, including the source code for the Amazon-owned streaming platform. As Twitch said, passwords were not believed to be stolen, but for extra safety, you may want to change your passwords regardless. Dexerto has reached out to Twitch for comment.

Twitch launches shared ban list in an effort to make platform safer TwitchTwitch has officially launched its shared ban information feature, allowing creators to share who they have banned on their channel with other streamers. As Twitch has continued to gain popularity over the last few years, the Amazon-owned platform has had to deal with its fair share of issues. The biggest of those issues has been hate raids that initially began happening en-mass last year, which led to creators boycotting the website for a day and calling for Twitch to “do better.” Since then, they’ve released a variety of features to combat harassment and make creators feel safer — with the latest one being the ability to share your list of banned viewers with other streamers. Twitch launches shared ban info Announced in a blog post on July 21, Twitch will now allow creators to share their list of banned viewers with all partners, affiliates, or just your close friends. Over the last year, Twitch rolled out its ban evasion detection tool to help creators identify viewers who may be evading a ban from your channel. Their new ‘Shared Ban Info’ feature is an extension of that. Twitch streamers will now be able to share their list of viewers they have banned with other streamers. The company hopes that with this feature, creators can collaborate with other members of their community to help keep serial harassers away. There are a few ways to use Twitch’s new shared ban info feature. Through the shared ban info section of the creator dashboard, streamers can send and receive requests. It’s a two-way street, though — so if a creator accepts a request, both parties can see each other’s list. At launch, creators can share their information with up to 30 people at one time. By default, users in a shared ban info list will be set to restricted in your chat — meaning you and your mods are the only ones that can see their message. Reactions to the feature have been extremely positive since it was announced.

Twitch launches new sports channel for football, NBA, UFC, more Twitch[jwplayer Y7PB7YwV]Amazon’s livestreaming platform Twitch, best known for gaming, is expanding more into sports streaming with a brand new ‘Sports’ category, and partnering with some of the world’s most famous teams. Twitch has been the number one destination for video game livestreaming for years, but its audience has also expanded to IRL (in-real-life), chess, and live events. More recently, live Premier League games have been shown on the platform, the first indication of Twitch’s plans to move into sports broadcasts. Now, they’re creating a dedicated channel for the section. Twitch.tv/twitchsports will be the home of all featured sports events on the platform, which features links to other channels such as Premier League side Arsenal, the NBA, and UFC. In their announcement, Twitch said they are “collaborating with four of the world’s biggest and most innovative football clubs. Real Madrid and Arsenal have recently started broadcasting on their newly-established Twitch channels, and they will soon be followed by Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain” These four world-renowned clubs will be producing exclusive content to be streamed on Twitch. This is in addition to the sports leagues already on Twitch, including the NBA, NHL, NWSL, RFL, and UFC. There is already a growing crossover between professional sports and livestreaming, with the likes of Man City’s Sergio Aguero, F1 driver Lando Norris, NBA player Ben Simmons, NFL’s Juju Smith-Schuster and more all streaming regularly on the platform. Aguero actually became the fastest growing channel on the site when the Premier League was suspended. To celebrate the launch of the new Twitch Sports channel, MLS star Jimmy Conrad will be hosting a livestream featuring 2-hour slots from Arsenal, House of Highlights and the UFC. With four Premier League games being shown on Twitch this season (for UK users only), football fans who double as Twitch users will hope that this is another step forward to having more professional sports shown on the platform. Through their Prime service, Amazon have dipped their toes into acquiring the rights for Premier League matches, and Twitch could become another platform for them to show matches.

Twitch & Kick fight for LeBron James as NBA star reveals plans to start streaming Kick/Twitch/NBANBA legend LeBron James is looking to join the streaming world, with both Kick and Twitch wasting no time trying to convince him to join. The streaming wars between Kick and Twitch could be about to take another major turn with actor and MultiVersus fighter LeBron James interested in joining a platform. Over the past year there have been many big names signed across the streaming landscape from xQc’s $100M deal to Valkyrae deciding to stick with YouTube, but now, a major free agent has entered the market. On December 29, the second-best basketball player of all time, LeBron James, revealed his plans to start streaming Madden but had no idea what platform to join. Not wasting any time, Kick’s biggest names swooped in, trying to convince the Lakers’ star to side with them. LeBron James sparks streaming war between Kick and Twitch In a post on X, LeBron revealed that he was thinking of streaming his Madden NFL games when he plays and was looking for suggestions on what platform he should consider. “Who should I stream with? Meaning which platform brand?” he inquired. In an instant, Trainwreck and Adin Ross replied, making their case that Kick would be an ideal fit for the basketball legend. “Stream with us,” encouraged Trainwreck. “Come to Kick. I’ll get you a bag, my glorious king,” added Adin. Kick Head of Strategic Partnerships Andrew Santamaria even chimed in, writing “time to work,” suggesting that he was preparing a special contract offer for the Lakers star. However, this wasn’t the only offer on the table. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy also responded to LeBron James’ debacle and put in a good word for the Amazon-owned platform. I am a bit biased given that I run Twitch but Twitch is the best platform for engaging with your fans. You also could consider streaming on Twitch and YouTube at the same time — Daniel Clancy (@djclancy999) December 29, 2023 “I am a bit biased given that I run Twitch but Twitch is the best platform for engaging with your fans. You also could consider streaming on Twitch and YouTube at the same time,” he noted, referencing the site’s improved multi-streaming rules. So far, it’s not known which platform LeBron will pick, but given his history, hopefully we don’t find ourselves with The Decision 2.0.

Twitch removes new ban feature after accidental early release TwitchTwitch has removed a feature that automatically unfollowed users from a channel they were banned from, claiming it was released too early. On November 3, Twitch users noticed that anyone permanently banned from a channel were also automatically unfollowed from it. After hours of speculation as to why this was added, the Amazon-owned platform revealed this change was intentional but implemented too early. “While working to curb followbot abuse, a product feature was inadvertently released early. As a result, accounts that were banned in a channel were automatically removed as a follower,” Twitch said. “We’ve rolled back this change and bans should now be functioning as expected.” Furthermore, Twitch also addressed some criticism about how the new bans and unfollows work, as many have been concerned about joke bans being much more serious. We’ve heard your feedback about this change and the final product should address many concerns raised. We’re continuing to build, and we’ll let you know what is happening when we’re ready to launch. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) November 3, 2021 “We’ve heard your feedback about this change and the final product should address many concerns raised. We’re continuing to build, and we’ll let you know what is happening when we’re ready to launch,” they added. It’s not clear when this feature will return, but at least we now know that Twitch will be making changes to it before it goes live. Original story follows… Twitch has just made a major change to how chat bans will work on channels and it might make streamers think twice before jokingly banning their viewers. No one ever likes being banned on Twitch, whether it’s from the site itself or a stream. That said, chances are if you’re banned, there’s a reason for it, even if that reason isn’t a good one. Unfortunately for streamers or communities with moderators who ban viewers as a joke, permanent bans are now also making viewers unfollow channels automatically. As noted by Twitch security alert specialist Ravager, previously, broadcasters had to block a viewer to force an unfollow. Now, a chat ban is all that suffices. newly-discovered change: if banned from a channel you follow, that follow is removed. previously, the broadcaster would have to block you to force an unfollow. now, a simple chat ban would do. by no means does this justify a claim of mod abuse. — Ravager (@_Ravager) November 3, 2021 It should be noted, however, that timeouts or anything that isn’t a permanent ban won’t automatically result in an unfollow. On paper, this is a good way to get rid of trolls and remove your channel from their list. But there’s not really anything stopping them from just coming back, even if chat is hidden and they need to manually search. Twitch community mixed on new ban change As expected, some users took issue with the fact that joking bans will now lead to unfollows, and losing followers isn’t something an up-and-coming streamer wants on their path to partner. As a mod who has accidentally timed out the wrong person a few times, I live on constant fear now, what if I accidentally hit the wrong button ;-; — negitave b (@Negitave_B) November 3, 2021 “As a mod who has accidentally timed out the wrong person a few times, I live on constant fear now, what if I accidentally hit the wrong button,” a user wrote on Twitter. “This is a problem for the joke bans and also as I was just reminded, people use channel points for that as well,” another chimed in, referring to how some streamers let viewers ban a fellow user. This is a problem for the joke bans and also as i was just reminded, ppl use channel points for that as well. Nightmare— Voyevoda911 (@Voyevoda911) November 3, 2021 “So maybe this is primarily for bots then guys? So if you get follow botted, we ban the bots, and they get unfollowed so that your follower count isn’t distorted,” someone else suggested, noting how follow bots and hate raids are a big issue on the site. So maybe this is primarily for bots then guys? So if you get follow botted, we ban the bots, and they get unfollowed so that your follower count isn’t distorted. It’s good from that perspective indeed. — Goodie😎 (@DaGoodieOne) November 3, 2021 It’s unclear why Twitch made this change and didn’t announce it publicly, but in any case, it’s definitely something streamers and viewers should be aware of going forward.

Twitch just made big changes to its DMCA ban process to help streamers TwitchTwitch is making some major changes to how it alerts streamers of DMCA warnings to help them avoid bans. DMCA issues have plagued Twitch streamers for quite some time, with some even afraid to broadcast IRL trips to the store at the risk of copyrighted music playing in the background. While the confusion about what is and isn’t allowed remains, especially with the TV show meta, Twitch is taking steps to help streamers know when they’ve been hit with a copyright issue. In emails sent to streamers, the Amazon-owned platform explained how it’s changing its warnings going forward. Twitch outlines DMCA changes Currently, when Twitch’s system detects copyrighted audio in VODs or clips it will automatically mute the VOD and delete associated clips on the channel in an attempt to reduce copyright strikes. However, it wouldn’t give information about the copyrighted material. Going forward, when there are multiple instances of copyrighted audio, users will receive a notification and an email detailing what was copyrighted and a link to the VOD. “Furthermore, we will update your stream settings to unpublish your VODs by default moving forward. Your unpublished VODs can be reviewed and either published or downloaded from the Video Producer page of your Creator Dashboard,” Twitch explained. Update on Twitch and Copyright music: Seems like now Twitch will delete any clips with copyright music, and will also automatically mute your VODs Also mentions you will get an email notification about it too. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/biys9A3dtV — Ghost Wacke (@wacke) March 30, 2022 Streamers will have the option to toggle VOD settings back on and disable copyright audio warnings, however, Twitch is advising not to do this. It will be interesting to see if these changes end up resulting in fewer bans on the platform or if the warnings are simply disregarded.

Twitch unbans Asmongold’s back-up channel ZackRawrr after brief suspension Twitch: AsmongoldPopular Twitch streamer Asmongold’s backup account, Zackrawrr, has now been unbanned after it was hit with a surprise suspension. On June 10, 2022, Asmongold’s backup account on Twitch, Zackrawrr was hit with a surprise suspension from the streaming platform. Given that the MMO’s giant alt account isn’t partnered, the ban wasn’t picked up by the likes of StreamerBans, and was only noticed after some fans complained that they were unable to find it. Asmongold has since responded to the ban in a series of tweets and a YouTube video. He explained that it was incurred for “hateful and unmoderated conduct” after a fellow player on Diablo Immortal posted a racial slur in-game chat. When realizing that the slur was displayed on his stream, Asmon played it down so as to avoid giving the troll attention. However, Twitch interpreted this as the streamer “not adequately addressing the situation”. Also–this was done less than 10 minutes after those messages occurred in chat Keep that in mind next time there’s literal porn or scam Elon Musk streams up for hours with no response — Zack (@Asmongold) June 11, 2022 Asmon revealed that the ban was initially supposed to last for around 24-hours, but that has since been cut short by a fair few hours. As of 10 am EDT on June 11, the ZackRawrr channel has returned to Twitch with full functionality – meaning you catch up on any of the VODs you may have missed when Asmon wasn’t streaming on his main channel. Can Asmongold stream with his alt banned? According to Twitch community guidelines, Asmongold would not be able to stream on his main account while his alt is banned from the platform as it would fall under suspension evasion. It reads: “All suspensions are binding until expiration or removal upon successful appeal. Any attempt to circumvent an account suspension or chat ban by using other accounts, identities, or by appearing on another user’s account will also result in additional enforcement against your accounts, up to an indefinite suspension.” Though, as long as both channels remain resuspended, the streaming star is fine to appear on either.

Twitch just changed the way streamers appeal bans and report accounts TwitchTwitch has revealed a new on-site portal to keep track of ban appeals with a new “intuitive” reporting process in an effort to improve safety on the platform. As Twitch has exploded with popularity over the years, a variety of creators have found themselves banned from the platform with no solid explanation. The Amazon-owned company now wants to provide more clarity and consistency for those users. On March 22, 2022, the platform revealed two new products for the community. Available now is a new portal to submit and keep track of ban appeals, and next week they will roll out a new streamlined reporting process. Both of these features were created in an effort to improve safety, as it has been met with ill-intentioned users over the last year. Here’s everything we know about them. Twitch reveals new ban appeal page and upgraded reporting process In a blog post, Twitch explained that community safety is vital for interacting on the platform — but they rely on the community to help. In an effort to make working together with creators easier, they revealed the simplified appeals portal and better reporting process. They went on to detail how a more detailed report allows the team to act on offending content quickly, which prompted them to revamp their reporting process. They said: “Based on your feedback, we’ve developed a tool with a simpler, more intuitive design to help you file a report and get back to connecting with your community. “It includes a new search functionality to help you find the exact report reason you’re looking for, as well as tailored menus based on whether you’re reporting live content, VODs, or clips.” With the new reporting process rolling out in the near future, they also revealed the new ban appeals portal. They went on to explain why they decide to create the new portal, emphasizing they it was based on community feedback. They said: “We’ve heard that our current system is slow and that it doesn’t provide enough insight about how your current appeal is going or how past appeals have gone. This is particularly important for creators, who earn income from streaming for their communities.” These new features come as streamers on the platform have continued to deal with hate raids from bots, and creators constantly receiving bans from the platform.

Twitch issues harsh new punishments to viewers who get banned Twitch, Amazon’s multi-platform live streaming service, has taken steps towards providing their content creators with more control over their channel – banned users now face more severe repercussions. Twitch allows a variety of content creators to connect via their live streaming their niche of choice — from their real-life adventures to showcasing their skills in their favorite game, there is an abundance of content for viewers to absorb. However, toxic users can often be a thorn in a broadcaster’s side. Until now, users that have been banned were able to create alternate accounts in a bid to continually plague the chat of Twitch streamers. Yet, as part of the Amazon-owned platform’s bid to clamp down on ill-mannered Twitch users, they have implemented a new set of measures which will put more control in the hands of the broadcaster. As part of their March 27 announcement, Twitch Support Tweeted an update that will allow streamers to remove channel banned users from their follower and chat lists. This means a banned user will no longer be able to view the chat at all, until a moderator unbans them — giving the broadcaster both a sense of authority and peace of mind. 📢 Your well-being is important. We are taking steps to improve that, starting with your peace of mind. Blocking users now removes them from your Followers list. Channel banning users will remove them from your Chat list so you don’t have to see them anymore. — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) March 27, 2020 IP Shadowbans The banned individual will also reportedly be IP shadowbanned, meaning that they cannot continue to harass a streamer by simply creating an additional account. Moreover, should the streamer decide to lift said ban, the shadowban will also be lifted, according to streamer Devin Nash. “For context/clarity — we tested this using main and [alternate] accounts. Unbanning removes the shadowban from all accounts,” Nash explained. For context/clarity – we tested this using main and alt accounts. Unbanning removes the shadowban from all accounts. I’m a fan of giving more power to broadcasters. These new tools enable us to curate toxicity from our communities with more reliability. — Devin (@DevinNash) March 28, 2020 Twitch have also updated their article which outlines all of the tools which are at a streamer’s disposal when learning how to handle harassment in chat. One such tool is ‘blocking’ an individual, which has also been updated to reflect Twitch’s bid to support a creator’s well-being (i.e., blocking toxic users will also remove them from the streamer’s followers list). Additionally, blocked users cannot refollow, whisper, host or purchase gifted subs. That’s correct – Blocked users won’t be able to refollow – additionally, they can’t whisper, host, request friendship, or purchase gift subs. Banned users will not appear in the chat list at all – they also will not be able to see any messages in chat from other users, either. pic.twitter.com/NHfisfrWem — Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) March 27, 2020 While there are plenty of ways around IP shadowbans, Twitch are most definitely taking a step in the right direction by implementing these new measures.

Twitch delight puppy fans with new “Animals, Aquariums & Zoos” category Pixabay/TwitchTwitch has launched a brand new outdoors category separate from “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches” and “Travel & Outdoors,” this time with a focus on animals. On November 1, Twitch revealed that Animals, Aquariums & Zoos would be the newest category on the site, just in time for Animal Week. According to the platform, the reason for this new category is because of all the overlap animal-themed streams get with other outdoor broadcasts such as hot tub streams. Basically, they believe that there is enough interest in animal broadcasts that viewers should have a section dedicated to just that type of content. Additionally, Twitch says they want to do some good and want to use the new category to “elevate the importance of environmental and conservation issues facing these critters.” Big mews! Paws what you’re doing because Animal Week on Twitch starts now. To celebrate, we launched an Animals, Aquariums, and Zoos category! All of your Very Good fluffy, feathery, or fin-covered friends, all in one otterly adorable place. Learn more: https://t.co/giiJlA0B4T pic.twitter.com/aApWo7gQ1P — Twitch (@Twitch) November 1, 2021 “We’re working with zoos, aquariums, and animal non-profits to elevate the animals, their conservation, and the restoration and conservation of the environment they need to thrive,” they said, encouraging non-profit organizations to reach out. Twitch adds new animal hype train emotes The Amazon-owned platform also showed off a series of new emotes that viewers can unlock by partaking in hype trains. A number of different animal species are available to unlock including turtles, squirrels, owls, sheep and even giraffes. It will be interesting to see how popular the category becomes now that it isn’t directly tied to IRL and other outdoor themes.

Twitch is suing two users allegedly behind streamer hate raids TwitchTwitch has launched legal action against two users wo the streaming platform claims are at least partly responsible for the infamous “hate raids” plaguing the site. From August 2021 onwards, Twitch has been subjected to many ‘hate raids,’ where bots spam hateful and racist terms in a streamer’s chat. While the company claimed to have banned many accounts at the end of that month, they have now filed a lawsuit against two users they believe have been posting some of the hate messages. According to a report in WIRED, Twitch is suing the pair for “targeting Black and LGBTQIA+ streamers with racist, homophobic, sexist and other harassing content in violation of its terms of service.” A spokesperson for Twitch said: “We hope this Complaint will shed light on the identity of the individuals behind these attacks and the tools that they exploit, dissuade them from taking similar behaviors to other services, and help put an end to these vile attacks against members of our community.” The two users have been identified by their usernames as ‘Cruzzcontrol’ and ‘CreatineOverdose’ in court documents, which were filed on September 9. The Amazon-owned site believes they are based in the Netherlands and Austria, respectively. Despite the streaming platform claiming they took “swift action” by banning both of the users’ main accounts, the suit states that they “evaded Twitch’s bans by creating new, alternate Twitch accounts, and continually altering their self-described ‘hate raid code’ to avoid detection and suspension by Twitch.” Twitch also suggests in the lawsuit that the defendants may be part of a “hate raiding community,” which coordinates the raids over Discord and Steam. The lawsuit goes on to claim that Cruzzcontrol and CreatineOverdose still operate multiple accounts on Twitch under different names, as well as thousands of bot accounts to spam streamers. Furthermore, according to Twitch, both users have claimed that they can “generate thousands of bots in minutes for this purpose.” Twitch alleges that Cruzzcontrol is responsible for about 3,000 bots associated with the recent hate raids. While it hasn’t been revealed what, if anything, the company is seeking in damages, WIRED report that the new suit could help uncover the identities of the two anonymous users that Twitch claim are behind the raids.

Twitch is working on a “less interruptive” way to serve ads to viewers TwitchStreaming service Twitch is looking to revamp their ad program, introducing a bigger emphasis on Stream Display ads as a way to combat disruption issues and community backlash. Much discussion has been had this past year about Twitch’s push for the inclusion of ads during streams. The streaming service has been battling with their community on the use of ads on Twitch, constantly changing and updating the way they are implemented. One of the biggest criticisms of ads on Twitch is their disruptive nature when it comes to viewers simply wanting to sit back and enjoy content. As a way to combat this issue, Twitch have revealed plans to change up the use of ads to make the experience “less interruptive” for viewers. The full details are accessible via a blog post on the Twitch support page. Stream Display Ads to play a bigger role on Twitch “Stream Display Ads (SDAs) are 15-second display ads that show on channels. Viewers are able to see and hear creators while these ads are displayed. Creators don’t have to do anything different to use them.” “Ads are important to Twitch, and to our community. We’ve heard the feedback that ads are too interruptive, and we want creators to have the opportunity to earn additional income via advertising while building their communities, without the interruption that comes with standard video ads.” Part of this chance will see the service “experimenting” with how their Stream Display ads operate. “Starting in December 2022, we’re experimenting with an update to Stream Display Ads (SDAs) to make them even less interruptive. Select viewers will notice an update to SDAs.” These ads may vary in length as the platform irons out what amount of time works best for Twitch. However, they are likely to last for a short amount of time. It is also important to note that while the ads are playing, streamers will still be able to engage with their viewers and chat rather than the ad putting a hold on the stream while it plays out. These ads will also only appear depending on the current ad display set up that each individual content creator has. “Stream Display Ads will follow the same rules creators have set for their channels. So, if a creator offers ad-free viewing for subscribers, Stream Display Ads will not be shown to subscribers.”

Twitch accidentally renews Ninja’s subs despite not having a sub button NinjaTwitch has still been auto-renewing subs to Ninja’s channel despite having his sub button removed days before announcing he’s streaming throughout multiple platforms. Fortunately, those impacted can expect the money to be refunded imminently, Twitch confirmed in a response to Dexerto. On September 1, Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins completely disappeared from social media, blacking out his profile pictures and changing his headers to display the words “time out.” Just minutes later, he was no longer partnered on Twitch as his checkmark and sub button disappeared from his channel — leading fans to believe that he was moving to YouTube Gaming before he announced that he would be multi-streaming. Nearly a month later, those who were subbed to the iconic content creator before his announcement revealed that Twitch has still been auto-renewing their subs, although Ninja’s channel isn’t monetized on the platform anymore. Twitch issuing refunds after Ninja’s subs auto-renew On September 27, YouTuber Allenownz revealed that Twitch had charged him for his sub to Ninja’s channel. He said: “They might’ve taken the check mark and sub button away but they taking my money for the sub they ain’t paying ninja for anyway.” It appeared that he wasn’t the only one dealing with the auto-renew as well. Another user replied, revealing that they talked to Twitch and they wouldn’t do anything about it. They said: “Yep. I contacted Twitch and they said they wouldn’t do anything about it, but they’re still taking my money.” Yep. I contacted Twitch and they said they wouldn’t do anything about it, but they’re still taking my money. — Matt Schultz (@SamuraiSchultz) September 28, 2022 Ninja replied to Allenownz’s tweet with the words “lol what,” and retweeted it, implying that he was confused about the situation as well. In a response to Dexerto, a Twitch spokesperson assured any subscriptions that were automatically renewed, were done so by mistake. As a result, those who have been charged for the auto-renew sub can expect full refunds right away.

Twitch is reportedly offering big streamers a lot less money than before TwitchTwitch has lost two big streamers in the last month — TimTheTatman and Dr Lupo — and part of the reason might be because the platform’s not offering as lucrative of deals as it once did. Tim and Lupo jumping ship from Twitch was some of the biggest news in streaming over the last month. According to a new report from the Washington Post, it could be because the streaming site isn’t offering the types of deals it once did. According to the Post, Tim and Lupo leaving the site are because of “intentional changes” to how the company goes after exclusive contracts and deals with famous streamers. A number of former Twitch employees were quoted as saying that the site has “started to offer big streamers less money for similar amounts of work” and doesn’t offer the same types of contracts that it used to in the past. Several employees also claimed this was the reason for Dr Lupo’s departure, who got “lowballed” by the site during his most recent contract negotiations. This underwhelming offer is apparently what made the move to YouTube even more appealing. This was in relation to Lupo’s previous contract, which the streaming star inked back around the time that Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek left for exclusive deals with Mixer. According to the anonymous Twitch sources, losing those two prompted Twitch to offer lucrative contracts to their remaining stars at the time. Now that Mixer is dead and gone, and the purple giant continues to reign supreme in the world of streaming, it seems they don’t feel the need to continue doing so. One unnamed former Twitch employee claimed “The public has a very uninformed perspective on Twitch’s economics.” “Anytime [a streamer’s] been paid a ton, it’s been a lot more about brand than [the company’s return on investment],” the employee said. “The commerce business on big channels tends to flatline at some point, and streamers don’t want to play ads — when that’s Twitch’s big upside potential.” Furthermore, attorney Ryan Morrison, who runs the Evolved talent agency representing stars such as Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, confirmed Twitch is offering fewer and fewer contracts, and the ones they do are worth less than those that came before. “And outside of [North America], it’s just about none at all — at least in my experience,” Morrison told the Post. “That is not to say there are not some very lucrative and amazing deals coming down the pipes still, but it’s not where it once was.” Twitch obviously doesn’t think losing a couple big name streamers every now and then to other sites is a big deal, and their total hours watched compared to YouTube and Facebook Gaming seem to back this up. Twitch streamers also have a variety of ways to make money outside of just contracts, too, so how this new approach by the site to lock content creators down will work out remains to be seen.

Twitch is ruined for users in Germany because of very specific law German Twitch viewers are seeing errors while trying to access their favorite streamers’ clips and VODs due to Germany’s NetzDG. A law that is an attempt to prevent and combat hate speech and fake news. In July, German Twitch users started seeing limited access to certain clips and VODs on the platform, prompting an error code saying “This premium content is not available in your region.” Viewers from the country began requesting help from Twitch Support, as they were left confused as to why they were restricted to crucial parts of Twitch. Almost an entire month passed until the support team revealed that the restriction is due to the German Network Enforcement Act, also known as NetzDG. “We took a closer look at the problem and it is a restriction due to the NetzDG,” Twitch Support responded. What is NetzDG? NetzDG is referred to as the Network Enforcement Act in Germany. The law passed in 2017 and is aimed to combat hate speech and fake news across social networks. The law’s main target was Facebook, with some referring to the law as the “Facebook Act”. NetzDG requires all hateful content to be blocked within 24hrs, but Twitch has seemingly decided to block all highlights, VODs, and clips, even if the creator isn’t based in Germany. In July, German creator Gronkh received a message from Twitch, notifying him that a user in Germany reported the creator for violating the network enforcement law. Twitch reviewed the content and found no violations, so no action was taken. This was spotted earlier here https://t.co/NMklYarhTK and also by German streamer @Gronkh last month here when one of his vod got reported and he received this message: pic.twitter.com/SbI48FGD9a — Saysera (@Saysera69) August 6, 2021 Currently, the only solution for German viewers that are wanting to access the restricted content is to try their luck with an incognito browser, but content can also supposedly be geo-blocked if a user reports it. If the content is geo-blocked, the only solution is to use a VPN.

Twitch is finally enforcing its gambling ban with new policy update TwitchTwitch has officially begun enforcing its ban on gambling with a new update to the platform’s community guidelines. After weeks of backlash from some of Twitch’s biggest creators, they announced on September 20 that they would be implementing an update to the platform’s community guidelines to place a ban on gambling. Set to include sites that contain slots, roulette, and dice games and are unlicensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions, the initial announcement revealed that sites like Stake.com, Rollbit.com, and more would be included in the next policy update. Twitch finally began enforcing the gambling ban with a policy update on October 18, alongside more information regarding the ban. Twitch finally enforces gambling ban with new policy In their latest update to the platforms guidelines, Twitch has revealed more information regarding the previously announced ban on gambling streams As they previously noted in the initial announcement, stake.com, rollbit.com, duelbits.com, and roobet.com are the first four gambling websites that have been banned from the platform. However, it’s important to note that they also mention “all associated domains,” which would include variations of those four websites, so stake.us would also be banned under these rules. The guidelines also note that you can no longer share links or affiliate codes to these sites, and noted three ways to receive a strike on your channel. Share a referral code to a slots site with your chat – Include a banner with a link to online roulette games – Verbally refer your chat to a site containing dice games – How Twitch will “punish” gambling streamers Many users have also wondered how Twitch is going to punish streamers who break the new guidelines, which they answered in an accompanying blog post. “As with all of our policies, your account may receive an enforcement if you stream these prohibited sites,” they explained. “That said, we know this may be an adjustment for some and will be levering warnings in addition to suspensions in applicable cases in order to be fairer to streamers who may not have understood the change yet.” While the list of banned gambling sites may continue to grow, Twitch has yet to place a ban on sports betting, something that Trainwreck has shared his disappointment about in the past.

Twitch is removing the host feature and streamers are furious Unsplash: Caspar Camille RubinTwitch has announced that they will be removing the ability for streamers to host another channel and creators are furious. Throughout the years, many creators have looked at Twitch‘s host mode feature as a crucial part of discovery on the platform. Streamers are able to use their channel to host a friend’s stream while offline, while also providing viewers with a constant stream of content without having to manually find another creator. On September 6, Twitch updated its website to reveal that they will be removing the feature — and streamers aren’t exactly happy. Twitch removes host mode Under the Frequently Asked Questions section of its website, Twitch revealed that Host Mode will be removed on October 3, 2022. After the removal of host mode on that date, streamers’ list of channels they used to automatically host will be changed to “Suggested Channels” in the dashboard. They added an explanation as to why they’re removing the feature as well. “We made the decision to deprecate this feature because the experience it delivers to viewers doesn’t match their expectations when they come to Twitch,” it reads. “Viewers want to interact with a streamer when they’re live and host mode blocks this from happening. Preventing viewers from interacting with the streamer they’re watching also limits a streamer’s growth potential because they’re not able to build meaningful connections with those new viewers.” Streamers slam Twitch for host mode removal Shortly after the removal announcement, it began making its way around Twitter. Twitch streamers took to their accounts to slam the website for removing the feature. Popular XSET member JaredFPS commented: “Twitch is getting rid of Hosts. Just can’t understand what’s going on over there.” Twitch partner xxBrandy slammed the platform for its lack of discoverability: “Twitch is removing hosts? Why? The discoverability is already so difficult on this platform and now another avenue of helping others to get more attention is being removed. I don’t understand this move or how @Twitch thinks this will be more beneficial to its users…” Other streamers on the platform, like iMoparHD, have mentioned that he doesn’t know anyone that actually watches people when they’re just being hosted, and claimed that it would be a bigger deal if Twitch removed raids.

Twitch streamer devastated as her phone gets stolen to end IRL stream A Twitch streamer exploring the streets of Naples, Italy was the victim of drive-by phone theft, and the camera stayed on for a moment to broadcast the crime. When content creators take their streams on the road, they’re always putting themselves at a risk. They’re stepping outside the protective bubbles of their stream setups and into the chaos of IRL streaming. Anything can happen while IRL streaming and Twitch users have been the victims of a number of horrific encounters. Viewers have witnessed anything from drunk men chasing streamers down the street to others being physically assaulted by a group of strangers. Streaming IRL is a dangerous hobby, but physical well-being isn’t the only concern streamers have. They also have to worry about their equipment being damaged—or worse—stolen. Twitch streamer phone stolen, but the show goes on Within the first 30 minutes of Elina’s stream, the broadcast came to an unexpected end. While she explored the streets of Naples, Italy, an unknown person on a motorized scooter flew by swiping the streamer’s phone from her hands. The Swedish streamer would later update her fans via Instagram letting them know she was okay. While the event was startling and altogether tragic, it was also quite ironic when watching the full clip. Moments before her phone was stolen, Elina was walking past an eery passageway. She stated, “I think I will die if I go in here. If I were to die on camera, or on stream, I think that would be good content. I would become famous.” While she did not die, her stream surely did a few seconds after her phone was taken. The clip of the incident has gone viral with over 35k views on Twitch. Streamer Elina just had her phone stolen live on stream pic.twitter.com/yU8K8FM2T8 — Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 6, 2022 Later during a short live stream on Instagram, Elina stated, “I’m a little shaken up cause my phone got stolen. Just ripped out of my hand by some moped dude.” She didn’t go into detail regarding the aftermath of the event but did state she was back home and was fine.

Twitch invaded by fake Elon Musk streams with Bitcoin scams Wikimedia / TwitchTwitch has had to shut down a handful of livestreams that have invaded and taken over the top live channels on the platform, pretending to be Elon Musk running a cryptocurrency giveaway. Thanks to botted viewers, and then resulting real viewers tuning in to see what the fuss is about, these channels would amass upwards of 40,000 concurrent viewers on November 1. As one account was shut down, another would almost immediately pop up in its place, again running the same stream. The broadcast features a generic image of Elon Musk talking, alongside a number of scam offerings for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Emblazoned at the top of the stream was the headline offer: 5,000 BTC, 50,000 ETH Giveaway. As these channels rose to the top of Twitch’s directory page, thanks to the massive, albeit fake, viewership, users quickly took notice. “Top live channel on twitch is a blatant bitcoin scam,” one user said, sharing a clip from the stream. “Ran for about 40 minutes with 30k+ viewers ending around Midnight PST. Some generic unrelated footage of Elon speaking with a mask on and this blatant scam overlay.” But, even as Twitch brought down the banhammer, whoever was behind the scam streams would relentlessly come back with a new account. The channel names were simple ‘elonmusk’ with a mix of random numbers at the end. It should be noted that the real Elon Musk does not have an official Twitch channel. As one of the richest men in the world, he’s often used to fake these giveaways, but this is the first time it has become so prolific with livestreaming. Even now, at the time of writing this article, the two top channels on Twitch’s homepage are scam streams, pretending to be Elon Musk and Shroud. The two top live channels on Twitch are currently scam giveaway streams pretending to be @elonmusk and @shroud 😬 As soon as Twitch shuts them down, another takes their place… pic.twitter.com/ISF2th2aqw — Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 1, 2020 Earlier in 2020, Musk’s Twitter account was hacked, along with many others, and exploited to spread more fake cryptocurrency giveaways. Despite Twitch’s best efforts to clamp down on these scam streams, fake CS:GO skin giveaways, pretending to be pro players like s1mple and dev1ce have been an issue for over 12 months. Twitch have been criticized for failing to do enough to protect their users from these scams.