The US military has been trying for some time to motivate young people for a career in the armed forces via Twitch. However, they seem to be crossing the line of legality by offering fake giveaways for expensive Xbox controllers. This has become too much for Twitch.
What’s the deal with the US Army and Twitch? The US Army has been using the streaming service Twitch for some time to stream shooter games like Call of Duty. Uniformed soldiers play virtual soldiers in games like Warzone.
All of this is supposed to make the armed forces appealing to young gamers and potentially lead them to enlist in the Army or another branch of the military. The Bundeswehr also had similar plans during the last gamescom.
Instead of controllers “Join the Army!”
What’s up with the giveaways? In the chat of the Army streams, it was often pointed out that one could win an expensive Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller. It costs around 200 dollars and is a great prize for many gamers.
But when one followed the link to the giveaway, they probably ended up on the regular recruitment page of the US Army, where one could enlist for the army. There was no sign of a giveaway anymore. Instead, there was a career path in the military.
Is that even allowed? According to US law, giveaways must meet certain guidelines. Among other things:
- Clear rules must be visible on the website so that every potential participant can see them
- The giveaway must have a time frame with a start and end date
- The odds of winning must be disclosed
- The prize must actually be provided
None of this seemed to apply to the Army’s “giveaway”. Therefore, the contest was clearly a fake and just a lure to recruit new members. Numerous outraged viewers informed Twitch about this and asked, among other things, whether other streamers could also get away with such outrageous stunts.
This is how Twitch reacted: Twitch has since reacted and put an end to the obvious fake giveaways. In a statement to Kotaku, Twitch stated:
According to our terms of use, promotions on Twitch must comply with all applicable laws. This promotion did not comply with our Terms of Service, and we have asked them to remove it.
With that, the Army’s unscrupulous recruitment methods on Twitch should come to an end. The whole action is reminiscent of the recruitment attempts in earlier centuries, where army recruiters would buy naive young men a few drinks and then get them to enlist in the military in their drunken state for years. By the way, the US Army has previously faced criticism for aggressively banning all viewers who ask sensitive questions about war crimes on their streaming channel.
