It’s time to say goodbye to Twitch after years of experiencing sexism and harsh and unfair and uneven policy enforcements.
The time has come for content creators and streamers to say goodbye to Twitch and leave for good. In recent years, criticism has been levelled against the popular streaming network for a lack of openness in the platform administration, a bias towards female streamers, and unfair and inconsistent rule enforcement. Many gamers and streamers are leaving Twitch in favour of its competitors, such as YouTube and now Kick, a controversial website that is accused of using leaked Twitch source code. These gamers and streamers are looking for a streaming network that is dependable and constant.
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As a result of the company’s inconsistent enforcement of its regulations, a number of professional gamers and streamers have decided to stop using the Twitch TV platform. This was illustrated by the example of Nadia Amine, a Twitch streamer who has frequently been in violation of Twitch’s regulations by cheating in Call of Duty Warzone. During the course of a livestream, Nadia Amine doxed a viewer by disclosing the persons full legal name. In spite of the fact that she had broken Twitch’s terms of service, the punishment that she had been given was immediately removed.
On the other hand, the streamer who goes by the name Dellor, whose real name is Matthew R. Vaughn, was given an indefinite suspension for asking a female teammate to “cook a sandwich” during an intense game of Apex Legends on his stream. These examples demonstrate that Twitch punishes male users disproportionately harshly for minor rule breaches, whereas female users are more frequently handed punishments that are either less severe or none at all.
Another example of this double standard can be seen in the situation involving Tyler1, who was prohibited from streaming for a period of one month because he engaged in toxic behaviour over the course of his broadcasts. In contrast, Alinity Divine was merely given a warning from Twitch for multiple incidents of animal cruelty, including the fact that she fed alcohol to her cats and hurled them around her room. This was despite the fact that she committed these acts on multiple occasions. These are just two of the many incidences that took place.
On August 24th, Twitch temporarily banned female broadcaster Kimmikka because her stream involved real-life sexual activity. It was then revealed that she engaged in x-rated behaviours that were quite graphic throughout the livestream.
The streamer was extremely vocal throughout the act, and she made a number of suggestive gestures and noises.
The video went viral, and Kimmikka was quickly banned from streaming on Twitch for “nudity and sexually explicit content or activities.” Many people were surprised to find that the restriction will only be in effect for a week.
JiDion, a popular YouTuber and male Twitch streamer whom was partnered with Twitch, was given a permanent ban for calling Pokimane a “thot” and encouraging his supporters to spam “L + Ratio” in her chat. Pokimane reported JiDion to Twitch, and JiDion was banned permanently. In spite of the fact that he issued a public apologies for the incident and even tried to make things right with Pokimane, the employees at Twitch refused to reactivate his account.
It is not only unfair to enforce the rules in such a way that they are applied inconsistently, but it also makes it difficult for professional players and streamers to understand what is and is not permitted on the platform. This situation creates a barrier to entry for new users and discourages existing users from engaging in legitimate activities. A career can be started on Twitch, but doing so is risky because the platform’s policies are so arbitrary, and even a little infraction can result in an indefinite suspension from the service.
It shouldn’t come as a shock to learn that Twitch does not offer a safe or balanced atmosphere for professional gamers and streamers, particularly guys who identify as being in these categories. If you are considering abandoning the platform, you may want to look into kick.com [Kick], a new service that has more flexible terms of service and enables users to broadcast gambling and play adult games.
Kick.com [Kick] has been the subject of numerous controversies ever since it became accessible to the public, yet the site’s popularity only continues to rise exponentially. The website’s loose content policies and enticing 90/10 split between ad revenue and paid subscriptions are two major reasons for this.
Is it time to leave Twitch? If you are considering leaving the platform, you should investigate kick,com [Kick] before making a final decision. The moment has come to part ways with Twitch and search for an alternative streaming service that lays a greater emphasis on honesty and openness and is not biased and unfair.