Tyler “Ninja” Blevins took to Twitter on Sunday to put Twitch on blast. He accused them of using his dormant page to promote other streams, including one featuring NSFW content.
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear responded with an apology, but Ninja’s wife-manager Jessica Blevins reacted to Shear’s apology. They said Twitch did it purposefully to “kill @Ninja brand.”
The latest developments follow Ninja’s announcement on August 1 that he was leaving Amazon’s Twitch for Mixer after securing an exclusive deal with Microsoft.
On August 11, Ninja posted a video to Twitter calling out Twitch for using his dormant Twitch channel to promote other streamers. This promotion included a channel featuring NSFW content.
The NSFW content was featured on Ninja’s channel as the number 1 recommended channel on the Twitch platform.
According to Ninja, Twitch used only his channel as a platform to promote other streams. They did not use other channels on the platform for the same purpose.
“I’ve been streaming for eight years, to build that brand and to build my channel,” the Fortnite Battle Royale star said. “They were still using my channel to promote other streamers. Now, there was a porn account that was number 1 being recommended on my channel.”
Disgusted and so sorry. pic.twitter.com/gnUY5Kp52E
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
Ninja’s Twitch channel has more than 14. 7 million followers.
Twitch streamers and fans react
Many top Twitch streamers took to social media on Sunday in support of Ninja. Some noted that Twitch has the right to change its policy or practices. They argued promoting NSFW content on Ninja’s page — which has millions of young followers — was inappropriate. They also said it could violate the website’s terms of service and laws.
Now @Twitch is recommended PORN on @Ninja ‘a channel to his young fans! Honestly I would sue at this point! This disrespect has went on long enough! #DramaAlert pic.twitter.com/gN2OGXvVY8
— KEEM ? (@KEEMSTAR) August 11, 2019
The NSFW account promoted on Ninja’s page reportedly streamed adult content for more than two hours.
This wouldn't even have been an issue if they didnt use my channel to promote others in the first place…
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
@Twitch ????? Seriously?
— rae (@Valkyrae) August 11, 2019
There were rumors on Twitter on Sunday that Ninja was considering taking legal action against Twitch. But Ninja did not address the rumors. He only confirmed later on Sunday that Twitch has reverted his channel to its “normal offline” look and withdrawn the ads featured on it.
Twitch has now reverted my channel back to how an offline page should look. Thank you.
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
Twitch CEO responds
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear responded much later Sunday to the controversy generated by Ninja’s video statement. He said Twitch recently began experimenting with promoting recommended content across the platform. This promotion included offline pages, but the NSFW content that appeared on Ninja’s channel violated Twitch’s terms of service.
He said the account in question was “permanently suspended.” Twitch also suspended the channel recommendation feature while they investigate how the “lewd” content appeared on Ninja’s page.
“On a more personal note, I apologize directly to @ninja that this happened,” he concluded. “It wasn’t our intent, but it should not have happened. No excuses.”
1/ Our community comes to Twitch looking for live content. To help ensure they find great, live channels we’ve been experimenting with showing recommended content across Twitch, including on streamer’s pages that are offline.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
3/ We have also suspended these recommendations while we investigate how this content came to be promoted.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
4/ On a more personal note, I apologize want to apologize directly to @ninja that this happened. It wasn’t our intent, but it should not have happened. No excuses.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
Ninja’s wife Jessica Blevins speaks out
Ninja’s wife-manager Jessica Blevins responded to Shear’s apology on Twitter on Sunday, saying the platform was only doing damage control. She alleged that Shear’s apology was not sincere and that they purposely converted Ninja’s page into an ad platform to “kill @Ninja brand.”
She backed her argument by citing a Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, who tweeted “RIP” on August 1 after Ninja announced he was moving to Mixer.
Twitch is doing PR control right now but it seems their intent from the beginning was to try to kill @Ninja brand. They say promoting other channels on his page wasn’t of ill-intent, but here is a Twitch co-founder saying RIP with a winky face to Tylers transition. Petty https://t.co/O86Z5QsecI
— Jessica Blevins (@JessicaBlevins) August 11, 2019
Many fans agreed with Jessica’s argument. They pointed out the manner in which Twitch hid all of Ninja’s channel branding betrayed an ulterior motive.
Ninja’s move was widely seen as a boost to Mixer
Mixer, Microsoft’s live streaming platform, is a relatively new service launched in January 2016 as Beam. The platform was renamed Mixer in 2017.
Ninja’s decision to leave Twitch and join Microsoft’s Mixer was widely seen as a significant loss for Amazon’s Twitch. Mixer had been struggling to gain recognition and compete on equal footing with Twitch.
Ninja’s presence on Mixer could have a bandwagon effect as other major Twitch streamers, including Dr. Disrespect, have reportedly expressed interest in making a deal with Mixer and moving to the platform.
Twitch needs to address some of the issues that have been the subject of controversy in recent years. These include complaints by some streamers that management allows some of its top streamers to get away with violations while coming down hard with sanctions on others for the same offenses.