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Twitch streamer Omega Jones, popularly known as CriticalBard, recently bore witness to the internet's toxic side after being subjected to racist tweets. This was moments after being announced as "PogChamp of the Day."
Recently, Twitch decided to adopt commentator and gamer Sean Plott's suggestion. The suggestion was concerning a flexible PogChamp emote, which changes every 24 hours.
This gave rise to "The PogChamp of the Day," where streamers from the Twitch community were made the face of the emote for an entire day.
This move was implemented after the original creator Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez was criticized for inciting civil unrest during the violence ensuing in theUS Capitol building.
The most recent streamer to be announced as the face of PogChamp was CriticalBard. CriticalBard is an actor, vocalist, and strong advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement.
His selection was lauded on the grounds of inclusion and representation. However, things soon turned ugly after a few users pulled out a string of his older tweets.
After surfacing these tweets online, CriticalBard was bombarded with a barrage of racist tweets.
His controversial anti-white rhetoric is what most likely sparked outrage online.
The Twitter community came out in support of the Twitch streamer and took a defiant stand against the racism that was perpetuated towards CriticalBard.
Twitter takes a stand against racism directed at CriticalBard on Twitch
CriticalBard addressed the series of racist comments directed at him before making this bold statement:
"I'm kind of seeing it a little bit on Twitter plus in here. Someone shared a conglomeration of all the times I've said white feelings don't matter and are now using that as a tirade against me. I'm not condemning an entire people and defending insurrectionists. I'm saying when you say 'White Lives Matter,' they don't. 'White Lives' don't matter because 'White Lives' aren't a thing."
His thoughts were also echoed by popular Twitch streamer HasanAbi.
Twitter was soon abuzz with several reactions. Most tweets condemned the racism towards CriticalBard and extended their support to him.
Here are some of the supportive tweets:
It seems that Twitch's well-intentioned decision to revamp the popular PogChamp emote is suffering from a case of poor execution.
Knowing the levels of toxicity that exist today in the digital space, Twitch should do more to create a secure system for content creators.
The hate spewed across Twitter constitutes a serious concern for the streaming community, who yearn for an inclusive and diverse digital space.
As support continues to pour in for CriticalBard online, the streaming community will hope that Twitch does more to circumvent online toxicity.
