Vtubers Get Twitch Conned

Issue #275 | September 24, 2024

It’s been a very long weekend, so apologies that this newsletter is coming out late. I’d been in San Diego for TwitchCon, and despite losing my wallet, medication and all the accouterments needed if one is traveling with two small dogs in tow, I was all set to write about how great the event had been. At first glance, everything about TwitchCon seemed to exist in the diametric opposition of the corporatization of all the other Cons: a relatively low-key affair for something that shared the same physical space as Comic-Con, the center had been retrofitted to include a welcome number of bean bag chairs in the lobbies, giving this corporate-backed product into the same vibe as freshman orientation.

Twitch event was organized to highlight what the head of marketing told me was the platform’s biggest product: the community. Meet-ups, meet-and-greets, live shows, the artist alley…you can find versions of these at any number of conventions, but at TwitchCon, people seemed actually excited to be participating. In lieu of endless industry panels, there were live shows like “Between Two Queens” with DEERE and dragtrashly, Hasan Piker’s “Debatelords,” and “Name Your Price,” a 70s throwback game show hosted by AustinShow and Will Neff. The emphasis was on having a good time, and not even roving bands of Kick streamers harassing attendees could ruin the vibe.

THE COMMENTS SECTION

“>vtubers banned for reasons unstated
>”hey can you tell me why i was banned”
>no reason
>twitchcon 2024 announcement
>twitch says they’ll give reasons and timestamps for bans now
>celebrate
>day after twitchcon
>mass ban vtubers for “bit purchase fraud” & “botting”

ok 🧍“
– X user Siix ☣️ Rabid Dog VTuber (@SiixVTuber) on Twitch

Unfortunately, this news could: days after touting their relationship with the vTubing community, Twitch appears to be targeting their biggest names for suspension. For background: Vtubers don’t share their real identity on-camera, but appear as virtual animated avatars. They are real people behind the accounts who interact with their audience the way any other host might, but they may appear as an anime character, or a human-animal hybrid. It may seem hyper-niche, and the barrier to entry can be intimidatingly cost-prohibitive, but on Twitch, it’s not uncommon to stumble across streams where a computer-generated host interacts with their audience while playing games, talking to friends or reacting to other videos. Twitch’s most popular streamer at this moment is actually a Vtuber named Ironmouse, a bubbly animated character who TwitchCon was eagerly promoting at their virtual meet-and-greet (the first of its kind!), offering themselves up as the Vtube-friendly alternative to YouTube, which had terminated Ironmouse’s account that same weekend after she failed to file counter-claims after being hit with three simultaneous copyright strikes on the platform. She had over a million subscribers on YouTube. (She has since been reinstated.)

It was a good look, honestly: Twitch also spent the weekend announcing a slew of new programs aimed at creator communities, giving them the access to more insights when their accounts received content warnings, and a whole new rev-share program for DJs who can now play licensed music without fear of their channel being shut-down. And though VTubers in the past have complained that Twitch had unfairly targeted the community — issuing vaguely-cited suspensions, or supporting software that contained a glitch that turned on the anonymous streamers’ cameras — this weekend genuinely seemed to be the turning point for the relationship between the platforms and the streamers.

Except by Monday morning, all that goodwill was gone, and whatever opportunity Twitch had to mend bridges with the VTube community along with it. Across X, multiple Vtubers shared that they’d been suspended from the platform for receiving donations, also known as “Bits,” consisting of stolen funds. No other explanations were given, and though Twitch’s own CEO commented on at least two of these posts saying that his team would be looking into it, today even more VTubers found themselves locked out of their accounts. Whether this is a glitch, a targeted harassment campaign taking advantage of a security loophole, or actually indicative of some larger systemic bias at Twitch against virtual streamers is still unknown. What we do know is that despite its lip-service about how much they respect the VTubing community, when it comes to protecting them or their revenue streams, Twitch is as seemingly indifferent as YouTube.

– Drew Grant, Editorial Director

PLATFORMS

TwitchCon 2024: Big Changes Coming to Twitch, From Easier Navigation to Fairer Moderation

Here’s Twitch’s plan to regain its streaming dominance.

By Steven Asarch, Passionfruit Contributor

→ READ THE FULL STORY

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