Twitch accused of running 'cheap ads' on live stream, platform integrity in question

Recently, Twitch has gotten into quite a few problematic situations due to some questionable decisions. In August, the platform was criticized for not taking action against streamer MilquetoastQT, involved in some violent outbursts against fans. At the same time, other situations have seen Twitch end up banning people for far less.

The most prominent example of such treatment is Dr DisRespect, who was never told the precise reason for his ban. According to the official Twitch statement, the Doc had acted in violation of community guidelines/terms of service, but the now YouTube streamer claims he has not been told the specific reason till now.

We look at another new accusation that has been leveled against Twitch recently.

Twitch running 'cheap ads' on live stream, has integrity called out

TheBlackHokage is a Twitch streamer/YouTuber who plays games such as Apex Legends and PUBG. The streamer has 149k followers on Twitch and around 628k subscribers on YouTube.

On 7th October, he accused the Amazon-owned platform of trying to promote brands for cheap on his channel via the following post.

A Twitch staff member comments in the post asking the streamer to shoutout a brand called FastShop. The streamer knew that the account belonged to a Twitch staff member because of the icon towards its left, and was quite angry. He refused to do the shoutout, and instead took to Twitter to shed light on this new issue.

Many users have speculated that the Twitch employee in question was probably trying out a new ‘social engagement’ method. However, there is no confirmation for this, and various viewers even accused the streamer of ‘lying about the situation.’

A few hours later, TheBlackHokage posted the Twitch clip, where he called out the staff member for trying to run ‘cheap ads.’ He explained that this is no way to do business, and influencers generally get paid to give shoutouts to brands. Most people on the internet seemed to agree.

Further, as content creator negaoryx explained, Twitch staff members cannot be moderated on chat. Their comments cannot be deleted, which is another problematic aspect, especially if they begin promoting brands on random streams!