Twitchstreamer Cardboard_Cowboy was recently been banned from Twitch for streaming his own Lofi music on his alt account. This is just the latest in a long list ofTwitchcontroversies that plague the video game streaming giant and threaten to take the company down as more Twitch users jump ship to the competition.
When Twitch first showed up on the video game streaming scene, itwas viewed as a fast-growing YouTube competitor. Today, Twitch is seen by many of its users as a company that cares more about making money than streaming video games. It doesn’t help that so many fan-favorite streamers have left the platform, or have been kicked off without much of an explanation. Adding to the list of confusing bans is Cardboard_Cowboy, getting punished for playing his own licensed music, which is acceptable on every major platform.
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Fans of Cardboard_Cowboy can watch his comedy-focused streams on his main channel and listen to his licensed music on his alt channel, LofiCardboardCowboy. Cardboard_Cowboy was going strong as aTwitch partner for five yearsbefore the company randomly banned his alt channel without properly informing him why. The streamer took to Twitter to point out the inconsistency of the company’s mission statement, showcasing Twitch’s goal to be as clear as possible with its users, and the email he received, which was more vague than anything else.
Cardboard_Cowboy is not the only bigTwitch star banned in 2023as this year has seen a number of unjust and unexplained bannings, such as the three-day ban Alinity received for “twerking,” a ban she managed to get reversed when she pointed out the much more lewd material present on the site. Much like the other stars who have had their bans reversed, Cardboard_Cowboy managed to make his voice loud enough on Twitter to get Twitch to reverse the ban a few days later. No public apology has been given so far from the Amazon-owned company.
Twitch’s reputation was most recently scarred by perhaps its most disastrous controversy, the new branded content guidelines that would force streamers to keep their burned-in adds to a minuscule amount of screen space. This policy came off to many as a money-grabbing move on the company’s part, putting its own self-interest in front of the streamer. Even thoughTwitch reversed its guidelines policyand issued an apology, for many streamers and, more importantly, for many viewers, it may be too little, too late. Cardboard_Cowboy might end up being the next star to find a new streaming home on YouTube or Kick.
