Former Twitch VP Justin Wong has taken to Twitter to lambast the streaming service for its poor response to the recent DMCA takedowns. The DMCA issues started late last month, when Twitch responded to a massive amount of DMCA flags by deleting content en masse, removing streams and VODs with little to no warning and absolutely no recourse for the targeted streamers, who had to race to save their content before it was decimated.
And that was only the start. In a further effort to shed DMCA-related legal issues as quickly as possible, Twitch went on to begin banning streamers. Even partner streamers saw their accounts terminated overnight, over even the slimmest of provocations. Streamers found that in order to keep their content and channels safe, they basically had to resort to not playing any music at all, no matter how safe or DMCA-compliant the music might appear to be. No one was safe from Twitter's desperate and brutal crackdowns.
Reactions to this "DMCA bloodbath" have been understandably negative from streamers, especially when Twitch went on to promote cosmetic features like the new Golden Kappa emote in the midst of the takedowns. One particularly vehement response comes from ex-Twitch VP Justin Wong, who aired his disappointment at the proceedings on Twitter. According to Wong, Twitch was receiving less than one DMCA notice a week until May, when it suddenly received thousands. After five months, the website began its brutal crackdown, in some instances giving streamers only three days to archive up to 9 years' worth of content before it was destroyed. The company then took three weeks to release a recent blog post outlining its plans for the DMCA crackdown moving forward. Wong compares Twitch's efforts at communicating to streamers with its efforts in preparing for GlitchCon this Saturday, which will feature 40 hours' worth of original content, and a website with a three day long Easter egg hunt. The disparity between these two issues highlights where Twitch's priorities stand, and, in the words of Justin Wong, "undermines...Twitch’s own reputation with the community."
Justin Wong paints a very disgraceful picture of Twitch. It was evident from the beginning that the website's main priority has been saving its own skin from legal troubles, and this statement puts a very condemning new perspective on that fact. Communication is key in any major online endeavor, especially one that's been impacted by such a significant issue, and Twitch streamers have every right to be outraged as they're banned without provocation over such minor faults.
Twitch is one of the most prominent names in the video game streaming industry, and what it does sets a standard for content creators across the internet. The example it's putting on right now is shameful, as has been pointed out by major online figures like Dr. Disrespect, whose had plenty of his own issues with the platform. This blog post is an optimistic overture toward a possible solution, but it's come far too late to undo a lot of damage. Hopefully Twitch will learn from the mistakes its made and provide a better online environment in the future.
Source: Justin Wong
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