Not long after being embroiled in controversy himself over a video in which he helped 1,000 people “hear for the first time”, MrBeast - real name Jimmy Donaldson – has waded into the outcry over the latest divisive policy decision from the streaming platform Twitch.
On Tuesday, the company updated its policy around branded and sponsored content, in which it set the incredibly specific limit of no more than three per cent of a screen size featuring a brand’s logo or overlay.
A ban on ‘burned-in’ adverts embedded into streams is another rule which will come into effect on 1 July.
Twitch was already facing a significant backlash over how it splits payments for channel subscriptions, which is currently 50/50, as well as its decision to charge a $25 maintenance fee to terminate an affiliate contract.
Given just how limiting three per cent is as a percentage, and in terms of screen size, many Twitch streamers voiced their frustration with the planned change, mocking how the site would even enforce such a policy and how they would avoid going over the threshold:
Eventually, Twitch issued a statement on Twitter, in which the organisation admitted the updated policy was “overly broad” and “created confusion and frustration”.
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It reads: “We do not intend to limit streamers’ ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors, and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers earn revenue.
“We wanted to clarify our existing ads policy that was intended to prohibit third party ad networks from selling burned in video and display ads on Twitch, which is consistent with other services.
“We missed the mark with the policy language and will rewrite the guidelines to be clearer. Thank you for sharing your concerns, and we appreciate the feedback. We’ll notify the community once we have updated the language.”
YouTuber and streamer Sean “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin and rival streaming service Kick were among those who criticised the climbdown:
And speaking of Kick – the platform on which Drake streamed himself getting a card declined – this is where MrBeast comes in, as a Twitter account promoting streams on Kick noticed the 158m subscriber strong YouTuber had followed them.
Donaldson replied: “Might do a stream for fun just to protest Twitch lol.”
Even Elon Musk, of all people, was on board with the idea, simply tweeting Donaldson to say “great!”
In a separate tweet – since deleted – MrBeast wrote: “This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all year. I’m not even a Twitch streamer and now I want to stream on a competitor now [sic] just to spite them for you guys lol.
“If YouTube pulled this s*** I’d lose my mind.”
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