Favoritism has been plaguing Twitch

Favoritism has always been present on Twitch. While no one really talks about it due to fear of being banned or worse, it does exist; and perhaps it always has, and always will.

Time and time again, Twitch has showcased disregard for streamers who break or bend the rules while penalizing those who barely do something wrong. While this is indeed not the case in every instance, it certainly cannot be denied to a large extent.

Much like the Golden Kappa, which can be handed out randomly by Twitch staff to whoever they please, banning content creators seems to work in a somewhat similar manner these days.

Most of the time, this happens without warning and without reason. To shed some light on this statement, back in July of 2021, William Neff, better known as WillNeff, was banned without any prior warning from Twitch support. He wrote:

"I was banned without any warning and it says the duration is three days. I wish Twitch Support had reached out before going nuclear but that’s the way it goes sometimes."

According to the streamer, he was banned for "aiding account suspension evasion" by merely talking to Austin "Mr. Wobbles" O'Brien on a livestream. Even though he had muted his livestream on that fateful day while having the conversation, he was still banned for a period of three days.

Given that Mr. Wobbles had indeed interacted with other Twitch streamers during the duration of his ban, without any repercussions, the entire ban felt more like a personal vendetta than a legal obligation.

However, some good did come out of the entire debacle as Rust developers stepped up and "convinced" Twitch to unban WillNeff, which ended on a happier note with Twitch channel mrwobblesmusic also being unbanned after nearly three years.

All said and done, while this was one instance where a content creator was banned for bending, breaking, or finding a loophole for the rules, many wonder why streamers like Amouranth haven't been permanently banned yet.

Despite piggybacking on the ASMR tag and repeatedly abusing the guidelines set forth by Twitch, it would seem that she and others get a free pass almost every time. All of this has led to one thought in the minds of many Twitch viewers. Why is there so much favoritism on Twitch?

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Twitch: Rule for one is not rule for all

The issue with Twitch has never been its rules. The platform has guidelines for most things to help run the show smoothly. The issue seems to be the fact that the rule for one does not apply to all.

To make matters worse, when streamers get vocal about this issue, they face the consequences exactly as mentioned above. The well-known Twitch streamer Steven Kenneth Bonnell II, aka Destiny, was recently banned for talking about favoritism when it came to moderation on the platform.

Perhaps the most frightening part about this whole ordeal is that there could be a list of streamers that have immunity from getting banned unless the transgression is blatantly severe.

To put this into better perspective, Amouranth has been banned five times already this year, but is yet to be permanently banned. Given the nature of her content, there are obvious grounds for a permanent ban, but it has yet to happen.

Furthermore, what makes this worse is the fact that even after massive backlash following the ASMR tag fiasco, the tag is still being freely used for everything else but ASMR. All of this leads once again to the same question. Why is there so much favoritism on Twitch?

If other creators are being banned and permanently banned for minor reasons, why then are others given a free pass day after day? Well, while this may be speculation, it would certainly have to do with their revenue. According to the community, revenue may be the main reason that some streamers get a pass every single time, while others just don't.

Following the massive Twitch data leak that occurred a few days ago, total revenue for streamers from August 2019 to September 2021 was leaked online. While it is pretty obvious that streamers such as xQc, NICKMERCS, and CriticalRole would top the list, what shocked many was that Amouranth came in at position 48 on the list.

To put the earnings into better perspective, Willneff and Destiny, who were both banned for minor issues, were in positions 657 and 672 respectively on the list. Their combined income was $513,652.42 while her income was $1,363,346.32 which is significantly higher.

It's clear from this data that both their earnings combined are just about 3/5 of her earnings; and it's pretty obvious that in terms of valuation, the larger number always wins. A former Twitch employee had this to say about the situation.

Given that larger streamers bring in more revenue and are more valuable, does this inherently mean that they get to go scot-free every time or face minor penalties?

It's rather unclear what's happening behind the scenes, but given the current issues that have been plaguing the platform, the future is uncertain. While Amazon will definitely be able to keep Twitch afloat, their reputation and popularity is decreasing over time.

With more content creators shifting to YouTube and other platforms, the streaming meta may begin to shift slowly. At the moment, fans can only hope that things will change sooner rather than later.