Twitch being forced to strike years old VOD shows how little control they have

It is safe to say that the last few months have been full of criticism for Twitch. The platform has come under fire for a number of streamer related decisions. Bans meted out to streamers such as Dr DisRespect, Alisha 12887, and Leafy have all come under mysterious circumstances.

On the other hand, streamers such as Onision, who has often been accused of being a ‘child groomer', has been made a partner streamer recently. This of course, is in addition to the ‘toxic work culture’ that the organization had been alleged to have. Now, with Twitch forced to delete a major chunk of content from their platform, more problems have appeared on the horizon.

Twitch being forced to strike years old VOD shows how little control they have

Recently, we talked about the DMCA notices that have been served to hundreds of notable Twitch streamers over the past few days. Various copyright holders have over the past filed claims against Twitch for allowing their content to be used by their streamers.

the Twitch DMCA bloodbath has begun, as hundreds of partnered streamers have received emails from Twitch as DMCA takedown notifications pic.twitter.com/zoIoI7Q7Xp

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 20, 2020

This led to Twitch identifying the content and sending notices to creators to notify them about their decision. As you can see, Twitch had decided to delete the copyright-infringing content on their own. Most Twitch streamers end up using music that does not belong to them on their channels.

Gaming and eSports consultant Rod Breslau posted the following tweet on the matter recently. He is not happy with how the music industry has forced Twitch to delete which in some cases as old as ten years old. According to Rod, these copyright claims have forced Twitch to delete their streamers’ entire life’s work, in some cases.

as needed to be explained to the fake stadia employee loser, most game developers/publishers realized very early on that livestreaming and youtube was innovating the gaming industry forward. meanwhile the music industry has been fighting the internet for over 20 years. pathetic

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 23, 2020

He further explained that the music industry has somehow been at crossroads with the streaming industry, despite the potential benefits. This is despite the fact livestreaming and YouTube has gone hand in hand with gaming. Finally, Rob also thinks that, unlike before, this is probably the best time for Twitch streamers and YouTuber to come together and unionize.

while a youtuber or Twitch streamer union is still not really a realistic feasible option, if there was ever a time for content creators to come together for the right cause — to fight the absurd DMCA practices from the music industry for the betterment of everyone — it's now.

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 23, 2020

With platforms such as Twitch unable or unwilling to protect their creators in the case of such controversies, Rod thinks that a union is the best step forward.