YouTuber and well-known content creator Ludwig has thrown in his two cents about the recent Twitch controversy surrounding changes to Branded Content, with the YouTuber pointing out that not much has really been updated in the guidelines after all the backlash.
On June 6, 2023, Twitch revealed new branded content guidelines that were seemingly set up to help the platform control how streamers advertise sponsorships. This change was likely to severely impact charity and esports streams, in particular, but still have far-reaching implications for every individual streamer too.
It was quickly met with backlash, with Asmongold calling for a boycott while his org OTK Network threatened to leave the platform altogether. Twitch issued an apology just hours later but has now removed the guidelines from the website entirely.
Following this, many big-name content creators from Twitch and other various streaming platforms have reacted to the news. Youtube’s Ludwig slamming the platform for the way in which their own “goals” are overtaking their duty of care and support of their content creators.
In his most recent YouTube video, “Twitch Fixed Everything…Almost”, Ludwig broke down the Twitch controversy while also offering up his thought and opinions on the matter since the platform backflipped.
“Basically, everything that was in the article yesterday still stands,” Ludwig began. His reasoning is due to the current wording found in the Twitch Terms of Service, specifically under the Advertisements clause.
“Twitch has the exclusive rights to monetize the Twitch Services, including without limitation, the exclusive right to sell, serve, and display advertisements on the Twitch Services. This means you may not, nor may you allow a third party to, insert or embed prerecorded advertising units into your live stream, including without limitation video advertisements and audio advertisements.”
This particular clause effectively still achieves similar goals to the now-scrapped branded content guidelines.
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“Why did they include this in their terms of service?” Ludwig asked. “Well, the reason is they had a goal. No one knows what the goal is. There are some theories out there. I talked to Hasan and we both have our theories.”
Twitch is removing their new branded content guidelines following backlash from streamers after yesterday’s announcement pic.twitter.com/z0GDaiXDTT
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) June 7, 2023
Ludwig comments on recent Twitch Branded Content controversy
Ludwig then continued on, stating how “the article wasn’t wrong, it was just interpreted to be the most severe version of it where they are going for everybody. And I guess technically with this language they could still go for the average streamer.”
However, Ludwig then reassured his audiences that, “I think that is not their goal with it and I don’t think they will do that.”
For now, logos are allowed to be bigger than 3% of your screen size again, and banner ads are allowed on Twitch as they were before. But with this clause in the Terms of Service, video and audio ads are still somewhat restricted.
The YouTuber then finally commented on how, while Twitch did rectify the mistake, they didn’t do so without a few issues still arising, in his eyes.
“It is good that they backpedaled and they clarified that they are now coming for creator’s pay. It is bad that they snuck in a provision to the terms of service that stops creators from growing on Twitch and other websites while making no money from Twitch anyway so I don’t know why it would matter.”
Want a full breakdown of the recent Twitch controversy? Check out our full deep dive, Twitch branded content guidelines spark controversy explained.