Twitch Uses Ninja’s Old Channel to Promote Stream Showing Pornography
Streaming platform Twitch recently used Tylver Blevins aka Ninja’s old channel to promote a channel streaming pornography.
Ninja recently announced he would no longer be streaming on Twitch, but would instead be exclusively streaming on Twitch’s competitor Mixer. After his exit from Twitch, the company used Ninja’s channel which has over 14.7 million followers to display “recommended channels” in the Fortnite category. One of those “recommended channels” was openly streaming pornographic films. The stream was visible to any user who happened to visit Ninja’s old Twitch page, since Twitch is not an age restricted platform. (Related: Ninja aka Tyler Blevins Leaves Twitch, Announces He Will Exclusively Stream on Mixer)
People who happened to click on said channel were shocked and appalled at what they saw.
When the situation came to Ninja’s attention, he responded via Twitter. He stated:
“But now, for those who don’t know if you go to Twitch.TV/Ninja they advertise other channels. They don’t do this for anyone else that’s offline by the way. Just me. There are also other streamers who have signed with other platforms who stream and channel still remains the same. You can still see their mods. They don’t promote other streams. They don’t promote other popular channels. But they do on mine. I’ve been streaming for 8 years. To build that brand. To build that channel. 14.5 million followers. They were still using my channel to promote other streamers. Well now, there was a porn account that was #1 being recommended on my channel. And I have no say in any of this stuff. This is the line. This is the straw. We are trying to get the whole channel taken down to begin with or at least not promote other streamers and other channels on my brand. On my freaking profile. So for anyone who saw that. For anyone’s kids or who obviously didn’t want to see that, I apologize and I’m sorry.”
Disgusted and so sorry. pic.twitter.com/gnUY5Kp52E
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
Shortly after Ninja’s video went live, Twitch reverted the channel back to its normal state and removed the splash page:
Twitch has now reverted my channel back to how an offline page should look. Thank you.
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
It’s been speculated on social media that Twitch purposely capitalized on Ninja’s departure to get exposure by disabling his old channel page and replacing it with a splash page promoting other streamers.
Add to that the lack of a timely response in shutting down the porn stream, and it does raise questions.
On Sunday evening, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear would finally address the issue, and also offer an apology to Ninja:
1/ Our community comes to Twitch looking for live content. To help ensure they find great, live channels we’ve been experimenting with showing recommended content across Twitch, including on streamer’s pages that are offline.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
2/ This helps all streamers as it creates new community connections. However, the lewd content that appeared on the @ninja offline channel page grossly violates our terms of service, and we’ve permanently suspended the account in question.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
3/ We have also suspended these recommendations while we investigate how this content came to be promoted.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
4/ On a more personal note, I apologize want to apologize directly to @ninja that this happened. It wasn’t our intent, but it should not have happened. No excuses.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
Unfortunately for Twitch, this statement comes too little, too late. In the aftermath of many recent scandals, public opinion has turned against the streaming service. (Related: Twitch Streamer Alinity Accused of Animal Abuse After Tossing Cat During Livestream)
Citing unclear terms of service, disciplinary double standards, and seemingly promoting adult content, many Twitch users are looking into different platforms.
One streamer told me, “It’s just not worth the trouble to stream on Twitch. I can go to Mixer, have clear rules, be treated fairly, and have a realistic shot at partner.”
Many streamers seem to agree with that assessment, as a hashtag entitled #Twitchoverparty has been trending the entire weekend on Twitter.
What do you think? Has Twitch done irreparable damage to itself?
Share your opinion below, and if you’re a content creator, share your perspective.
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