Middle Eastern streamers call out Twitch for blocking payouts on the basis of “discrepancy with certain tax information”

According to OldNoobs on Twitter, a tax service for Twitch streamers, they have received over 250 tickets from Middle Eastern streamers, claiming they were blocked from receiving a monthly payout. This has led to an outcry on Twitter, calling for fair treatment for Middle Eastern streamers.

“After looking into your account, we see that your account has been blocked from receiving payouts due to a discrepancy with certain tax information provided during the onboarding process. In light of this discrepancy, we are unable to issue payment.”

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OldNoobs claim Middle Eastern streamers are being denied payouts by Twitch

According to the OldNoobs Twitter account, the company's support isn’t helping the Middle Eastern streamers, and instead of taking care of the issue, it is simply blocking hundreds of streamers from receiving the payouts they earned on the platform.

They claim the platform does not support Middle Eastern streamers, and upon reaching out for email support, no answer is being given.

These streamers still have their partner or affiliate status and have subscription buttons on their streams, but are allegedly not being allowed to get the revenue they earned. According to them, it feels like an entire region is being abused, due to a bug in their system.

As of the time of this writing, the Amazon-owned platform has yet to make a statement.

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Middle Eastern streamers speak out against unfair treatment

Several Twitch streamers from the Middle East region have spoken out about this on Twitter as well. OSAMAH, a Twitch Partner with 147k followers on the platform, sent out a tweet about the situation. He said it’s unfair that the platform is banning his incoming revenue for no reason.

In the video clip he sent along with the tweet, he stated that streaming was his only job, and that he’d be homeless without the income provided by his stream. Subsequently, his followers on Twitter responded.

Another streamer, ohmyTalal, a Twitch Partner with 45k followers, talked about this issue on Twitter as well. They understand about blocking one or two people for tax discrepancies, but an entire region is incredibly unfair.

The streamer also pointed out that they had been receiving money from the platform from the start, and there were never any notifications stating otherwise. The streamer also clipped their email from Twitch Partner Help.

His fans were equally upset, finding the whole situation unfair.

A streamer in the Middle East, a member of the same org as OSAMAH, FFearFFul has 754k followers on the platform and is also a partner. He spoke on Twitter about how there is no reason a hard-working streamer should be denied their payments in this way, and that it’s unacceptable.

His audience agreed with him, feeling let down by Twitch Support in how they’ve handled the Middle Eastern streamers in this particular situation. The tweet was auto-translated, but the gist is that they agree.

Buthainah, a female Middle Eastern streamer, has 9.1k followers on the Amazon-owned platform and also reported a similar issue. She said that as a whole, the Middle East region feels left out and ignored, and even if the streamer is a partner, that doesn’t help their situation.

She said the problem is on Amazon's end, and even if they have official documents, they are still getting blocked payments. She also posted a portion of her letter from the IRS as proof.

A variety of other streamers in the Middle East region reported a similar problem, with AbdhulHD stating that he has been partnered for five years and is suddenly not receiving his payouts.

His audience was very vocal about supporting the streamer and spoke about how unfair this all was to him.

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Twitch has yet to respond to this situation, but many Middle Eastern streamers are frustrated and upset that their primary source of income is allegedly being denied. Streamers of all audience sizes seem to be affected by this problem.