The streamer Asmongold is in a dispute with the streaming platform Twitch. He is annoyed by the moderation of the platform. Twitch is biased, applies double standards, and acts wrongly. His complaints have apparently brought about some initial successes: Some streamers are claiming they can no longer earn money with advertising on Twitch.
What annoys Asmongold right now? Asmongold is upset about Twitch’s moderation. He is bothered by:
He himself was banned for 2 weeks after he made inhumane comments about the Gaza war. The ban is okay for him. He made a mistake and has been appropriately punished for it. He takes responsibility for his actions.
But other streamers are also taking positions on the Gaza war and making similar extreme statements as he did when he was banned. These streamers are getting away with it, even being favored by Twitch. Although their statements, in Asmongold’s eyes, are anti-Semitic. He is particularly bothered by the Twitch streamer HasanAbi and his entourage.
That was the last straw: A streamer, Central_Committee, put a “bounty” of $100,000 on the streamer Destiny and was only banned for 3 days for it (via Sportskeeda).
In Asmongold’s eyes, a much harsher punishment would have been warranted.
Asmongold says:
A person can do something and nothing happens. Someone else says something, and he gets permanently banned. I also think that the moderation is extremely biased. It is obvious that it is biased. And this will become clearer over time.
Asmongold wants to hit Twitch where it hurts: in the pocket
This is Asmongold’s threat: Asmongold has announced he will expose everything that is going wrong on Twitch.
He believes that he can shake up the industry that places advertisements on Twitch. He thinks: If advertising partners pull their money, it will force Twitch to moderate “fairer”.
“Adpocalypse” threatens Twitch – Streamers lose thousands of dollars in advertising
What are the consequences? As it has now become known, the streamer FaZe Kaysan has been de-monetized on Twitch. Kaysan says: An employee of Twitch told him it was due to the use of the tag “Iran” (via Sportskeeda).
Although the streamer has run ads on Twitch, he has not made any revenue from them. Kaysan claims he is Iranian and has been using the “Iran” tag for his Twitch streams for 3 years. He does not talk about politics in his stream at all. The relevant stream excerpt can be seen on X.
The streamer StableRonaldo, also from the FaZe clan, claims on November 13 that his channel has also been de-monetized (via X). It is not clear why StableRonaldo, a Fortnite streamer, has stopped earning money from advertising.
He says he has fallen from $10,000 to $9.65.
There are fears that this could be the impending “Adpocalypse”, where advertising partners deliberately pull back from Twitch and some streamers could lose their livelihood.
Such an Adpocalypse is a nightmare scenario for users of a platform that experience significant revenue losses. YouTube had such an Adpocalypse in 2017.
Asmongold on the de-monetization of streamers: You’re welcome
This is what Asmongold says about it: He says he contributed to this Adpocalypse. And “you’re welcome” – that kind of thing just happens. At its core, however, it is Twitch’s fault. It would never have reached this point if everyone had taken responsibility, just as he did for his statements that led to the ban from Twitch.
Asmongold also states: If Twitch bans him again, he will leave the platform for Kick or Rumble.
Chaos and uncertainty on Twitch
What’s behind it: It is a difficult situation on Twitch, especially regarding the polarizing conflict in the Gaza Strip. Twitch has already taken measures to mark such extremely difficult topics.
The current de-monetization of streamers may be related to them being detected by the system and marked as unsuitable for advertising. Twitch apparently wants to prevent advertising from being placed in the context of the Gaza conflict through de-monetization.
But it seems that everything is still a bit uncoordinated when the advertising ban does not occur with clear political topics, but only because a tag was set while someone plays Call of Duty.
Asmongold and HasanAbi are two poles in this discussion. However, it is not known what impact the actions of both have on Twitch. Whether Asmongold has really contributed to some streamers now being unable to earn money with advertising on Twitch is currently unclear.
The underlying problem of Twitch with the topic and an impending “Adpocalypse” has been outlined in this article on MeinMMO: Expert explains: Twitch is heading for a disaster and must ban controversial content
