Twitch’s PR nightmare continues as the company makes another brash misstep, this time in how they handled the departure of Tyler “Ninja” Blevins since his defection to streaming competitor, Mixer.
Ninja’s immense popularity helped with the rise of Twitch, and many other Twitch channels, to become the juggernaut it is today, but their constant mishandling of streamers, particularly their enforcement, or lack thereof, of clear violations of their Terms of Service is causing even their most dedicated streamers to contemplate leaving.
According to Polygon, for a short time following Ninja’s move to Mixer, his account page on Twitch reverted to a 404 error page where other Twitch streamers and even pornography were recommended to visitors.
Kotaku also reported that Twitch had been recommending other channels for fans of Ninja who could no longer access his content on their platform, and one of those recommended channels displayed adult content.
Following the news hitting the wire on Sunday, the link has been restored to a dormant version of Ninja’s account, but the damage has been done.
Ninja took to Twitter, where he has close to 5 million followers, to speak on the matter, and vent his frustrations.
Disgusted and so sorry. pic.twitter.com/gnUY5Kp52E
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
Many streamers, gamers, and the streaming audience as a whole are showing, not only their disgust, but their frustration with how Twitch is treating streamers.
Twitch appears to have infuriated a number of streamers who point out, rightfully so, how certain streamers get away with things, such as nudity, animal abuse, and using racial/hate slurs, with absolutely no recourse from Twitch, while others are banned for far less.
Popular Twitch streamer Keem posted the following video on Monday, where he called out Twitch for his ban, pointing out the inconsistencies.
Another Man was 30 day banned on Twitch while female streamers break the rules daily on @Twitch & don’t get banned! #TWITCHISOVERPARTY pic.twitter.com/SQPBuhfPxR
— KEEM ? (@KEEMSTAR) August 12, 2019
Twitch may be too big to fail, or too big to care, at this point. But, with platforms such as Mixer on the rise, Twitch’s arrogance, as well as their clearly inconsistent treatment of streamers, may cost them dearly. Twitch seems to be pushing it’s audience over to putting on their own Mixer streamers, and tuning into popular Mixer channels to get a relief from the constant issues.
If anything, the PR nightmare is set in as #TwitchIsOverParty has been trending on Twitter. The responses show a number of pissed off streamers, making a number of points and airing their own frustrations.
While nothing is imminent, I would venture to guess something legal could come of Twitch’s actions, eventually, as these incidents are becoming too common.