Twitch is an interesting entity, recently.
By far the leader as far as streaming platforms go, there is a certain weight, or impetus, landing solely on their shoulders to ensure a safe and inclusive community for the millions of viewers that visit daily.
They take that burden and then ban terms like ‘blind playthrough‘ and ‘virgin‘ to stop people from getting their feelings hurt in the community, while the very same community tends to look on scratching their heads, while the very same platform trying to develop an apparent ‘safe space’ for anyone and everyone then allows sexually explicit videos to be broadcast on its platform with little punishment.
This constant back and forth between the extremes of the spectrum that Twitch ping-pongs between has been, at best, amusing to watch while admittedly far more frustrating for fans and streamers themselves that feel trapped between the double-standards with little clue as to what will make Twitch next lash-out at its userbase. Suffice to say, if you’re a woman, it appears you’ll be a bit farther ahead as far as Twitch is concerned in the near future.
Yesterday, a bizarre spectacle of circus-like antics blossomed in front of the world as upset US voters stormed the capitol and easily managed to walk through multiple barricades; it has been reported that police had a difficult time stopping the hundreds of individuals as they were constantly attempting to change between their protest clothes and uniforms.
With less humor, multiple videos have surfaced of police officers within Washington DC simply walking away from their posts, allowing the attempted insurgents to take control over multiple offices and spaces within the capitol building.
PS Big Brother Twitter wouldn’t let me post the url so if you don’t think big tech censorship is real, there you go 🤷♂️
— gootecks (@gootecks) January 6, 2021
A video has surfaced of a single casualty: a woman attempting to cross a barricaded doorway (one of many that the insurgents crossed) and was slain by an audible pop of a handgun coming from an officer: suddenly, the same group that was protesting against the social rights BLM protests by attempting to support the police officers are now crying foul and claiming the woman as a martyr for the cause (what cause that is is still unknown) while demanding the officers are punished.
Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez is the face of the PogChamp emote, and tweeted yesterday in support of the protests on capitol hill that had politicians hiding; in response, Twitch has removed the PogChamp emote that, for years, featured Gootecks face. Gootecks has also been a proponent of COVID-19 being a hoax during the pandemic.
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 (@Twitch) January 7, 2021
As Twitch tends to turn people into icons, the decision has been arguably tumultuous: some are crying foul with allowing politicking to affect tradition, while others are keen to remove the face of a man that seems to encourage whatever outlandish farce occurred on January 6, 2021.
We’re seven days in 2021: might want to buckle up.
