Twitch under fire for hosting PORN on former top streamer’s page

Twitch under fire for accidentally hosting PORN on former top-listed streamer Ninja’s page

  • Twitch has come under fire for accidentally promoting a porn stream
  • Content was promoted on the defunct page of former top-streamer, Ninja 
  • The company has been testing using offline pages to promote other streams 
  • CEO Emmett Shear has apologized for the accident which happened on Sunday

Game-streaming service Twitch has apologized after its former star-streamer’s account was used to broadcast porn.

The explicit stream, which was broadcast onto the defunct account of e-sports mega star, Tyler Blevins, who goes by the alias, ‘Ninja’, was derided by Twitch’s CEO, Emmett Shear in a statement on Twitter.

‘We’ve permanently suspended the account in question,’ he tweeted.

‘We have also suspended [recommending other channels on Ninja’s page] while we investigate how this content came to be promoted.’

Twitch is coming under fire for inadvertently promoting pornography on the defunct page of former streamer, Ninja.

Though Blevins left Twitch earlier this month to join the Microsoft-owned platform, Mixer, pornography was inadvertently promoted on the gamer’s offline channel which was being used to highlight videos from other channels that stream the game Fortnite. 

One of those channels — which were listed according to popularity — happened to be a an account streaming hardcore pornography, and was inadvertently promoted to the page’s more than 14 million subscribers. 

In a response on Twitter, Blevins said that he was ‘disgusted and so sorry’ and said that the mishap could have been avoided had Twitch refrained from using his page to promote other channels.

‘This wouldn’t even have been an issue if they didnt [sic] use my channel to promote others in the first place…,’ he tweeted. 

‘As you guys know I’m streaming on Mixer now,’ Blevins said in a video posted to Twitter. 

‘There was a porn account which was number one being recommended on my channel. And I have no say in any of this stuff… We’re trying to get the whole channel taken down to begin with, or at least not promote other streamers and other channels on my brand, on my profile.’

‘So for anyone who saw that, for anyone whose kids saw that, I apologize, and I’m sorry.’

Ninja apologized to fans, but had little do with the stream given the gamer left Twitch to stream on the Microsoft-owned platform, Mixer, this month

The snafu marks an inauspicious start for what Twitch has described an experimental policy of using streamers’ accounts — including those that are offline — to promote other channels.

‘Our community comes to Twitch looking for live content,’ said Shear in a tweet. 

‘To help ensure they find great, live channels we’ve been experimenting with showing recommended content across Twitch, including on streamer’s pages that are offline.  

‘However, the lewd content that appeared on the @Ninja offline channel page grossly violates our terms of service.’

Twitch has come under fire in recent months for under-the-radar streams of explicit material, including those that similarly caught broadcasting pornography.

In May, the platform briefly suspended new users’ ability to stream content after a flurry of violations hit the site, including live broadcasts of racist propaganda, copyrighted material, depictions of self-harm, and allegedly one video of the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand according to Polygon.

The content targeted an often unpopular corner of the platform that streams a card game called Artifact made by developer and publisher, Valve. 

HOW DOES ‘WHO’ CLASSIFY INTERNET GAMING AS A MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER?

The World Health Organisation has classified playing video games on the internet as an official mental health disorder.

‘Gaming disorder’ is defined as ‘a pattern of gaming behaviour characterised by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.’

To be diagnosed with gaming disorder, the individual must:

(1) Experience significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning

(2) Have experienced this impairment for at least 12 months

WHO advises gamers to be mindful of how much time they spend playing, especially if it is to the exclusion of other daily activities.

They should also be alert to changes in their physical or psychological health and social functioning which could be attributed to gaming. 

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