In a lengthy post on X, streamer Devin Nash explained his views on why Twitch should ban “all controversial content” in an attempt to save the platform from an “adpocalypse”.
Twitch streamer and Novo.TV CMO Devin Nash, who is known for advocating for fairer sponsorships and supporting creators navigating contracts, has argued Twitch should ban controversial topics and content to protect the platform from going bankrupt.
Nash opened up more about the current state of live streaming and the effects creators can have on their audiences. He’s now come back to talk about the current standpoint of Twitch sponsors, and how creators discussing controversial topics is impacting the whole platform negatively.
He argued that Twitch is in “an advertising nightmare” with sponsors leaving the site without returning due to the countless of controversies surrounding the platform. He followed this up with explaining what he believes has to be done to fix the problem.
“The choice ahead for @djclancy999 is clear to me,” Nash wrote on X. “You must either ban ALL controversial and extremist content or none of it.
“And because a competitor already exists where all content is allowed and owns 10% of Twitch’s audience (Kick), the choice is pretty clear. This means politics (all sides), hateful content, and so on.”
Twitch is in an advertising nightmare situation. Advertisers are leaving the website and not returning. Twitch has controversy after controversy and can’t get its enforcement straight. I don’t know if the website will survive long term without serious changes.The solution to it…
— Devin (@DevinNash) October 25, 2024
Nash went on to compare the situation to what YouTube went through in 2017, when advertisers discovered their ads were appearing alongside controversial or extremist content, similar to what’s currently happening at Twitch.
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This made YouTube spend a large sum of money to build an algorithm that could identify brand-friendly content against controversial content in order to both protect creators as well as the platform as a whole from going bankrupt.
Meanwhile, Nash argued that Twitch instead chose to invest in their live CDN (content delivery network) and in broadcasting rights, content, and streamers, instead of protecting themselves from going through a similar situation to YouTube.
“Maybe Twitch figured that these problems would work themselves out if the content was good. But they didn’t, and the content is now on the decline. Extremists (on all sides) run huge communities on the platform,” Nash wrote.
“I don’t care if it’s a supervillain level take but Twitch was much better as a gaming-focused website,” he said.
“It could’ve been the live streaming platform for everything, but again, the systems weren’t built and that ship has sailed to YouTube and TikTok. By removing all controversial content and bringing it back to gaming, music, crafts, etc, you pull back in advertisers and your core audience.”
Several people took to the comments to express their own thoughts on the matter, with many agreeing with Nash’s observations and suggestions. So far, Twitch have yet to comment.