Longtime Twitch streamer DarksydePhil has lost his partnership on the platform, and as a result threatened to leave it permanently, unless his community can support him with enough donations.
Even dedicated fans of the streamer have criticized his actions since losing his partnerships, with one viewer who had donated over 25,000 ‘Bits’ banned for not wanting to use PayPal to make a donation.
On May 3, YouTuber David Davidson uploaded a compilation of clips from DarksydePhil’s channel, explaining that he had lost his partnership but did not want to move to another platform and lose his following.
However, as a result of losing partner status, there is no subscribe option, meaning he now relies on donations to monetize his Twitch content. When some viewers expressed concern about the information shared by PayPal, he hit back by telling them to “seek help” for their “paranoia.”
He has raised his donation goal to $200 per stream, and with 20 minutes remaining of a broadcast, called for his viewers to meet the target, as it sat at only $80.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last chance. I have to appeal to you one more time. Less than 20 minutes left on the stream, we didn’t even hit the vest goal tonight, this is not good.
This is why I’m telling you guys, I’m not joking about, if I can’t even get close to hitting the tips goals, I can’t stay on Twitch anymore. More than enough people ‘cheer’ and ‘sub’ when those things were available. I need people to buy in and say ‘ok, I used to cheer, I used to sub, I’m not going to do that anymore, I’m going to come tip instead. Or pledge to my Patreon.”
“I need the support now more than ever because of what Twitch has done to me unfairly,” Phil continued. “This is not good, this [stream] I’m not even half way there. That’s really bad. So please, if you can, please support.”
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At the end of the same stream, he said “you have to understand, this is my livelihood. […] I can’t have entire days where I’m not hitting a tips goal.”
Commenters criticized his requests for donations, with one writing: “We’ve reached the point where tips are mandatory, no joke or meme.” Another said “The gaslighting is so disgusting. The way he berates people and calls them mentally ill for not having a bank account to link to a PayPal. It’s really gross.”
On Twitter, DarksydePhil said that Twitch has not responded to his requests about his partnership or payments. He says he will require donations to be able to pay his mortgage payment, due on the 15th. “The purpose of this stream is to raise funds, to help me get through this tough time.”
Here is the audio-only schedule for Monday May 10 and the coming week! Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/tFnUPO3oQC
— Things Are HEATING UP! (@TheyCallMeDSP) May 10, 2021
DarksydePhil typically streams twice a day, taking his total donation goal per day to $400, or $124,000 a year, although he does typically take one day off a week.
Although the reason for his partnership being revoked is unknown (even to Phil himself, he claims), he has been banned on multiple occasions before. However, in March, it was alleged that he had “doxxed” a fan by sharing an image of their driver’s license on Discord. The fan in question had apparently been banned from chat, and hoped that verifying their identity would help them be unbanned.
His most recent, in October 2020, he says was due to a “false DMCA claim.”
The streamer also came under heavy criticism in 2019 after saying that racist jokes were “OK” if they did not target an individual, and that people simply didn’t have “thick skin.”