The hot tub trend on Twitch is a hot potato, with detractors claiming that it's inappropriate and supporters saying that it's a viable approach on a platform that doesn't have transparent guidelines on content creation. Now, one of the biggest hot tub streamers has found that the company has removed her ability to generate income from advertisements.
After starting her channel only four years ago, Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa has seen remarkable and rapid growth since then, with 2.79 million followers and almost 19,500 subscribers on Twitch. At the time of writing, she is live now and there are 12,000 people watching her stream as she chats while sitting in a pool. To the uninitiated, the "hot tub meta" involves the streamer completing challenges from the chat, playing games and talking to their viewers about this and that. The trend has received a considerable amount of criticism, and Twitch itself has relayed that there is nothing wrong with this sort of stream, though it has been "watching closely."
The hot tub might be the latest thing, but there have been some historical moments on the platform. Check out a compilation of Twitch's funniest wins and fails below.
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"Our nudity and attire policy does allow bathing suites in an appropriate context, and hot tubs do fall under that criteria," said Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham, head of creator development at the company. "What has not changed is the sexually suggestive and explicit content is not allowed under the guidelines, under the ToS, and Twitch will take action when that is reported to us." So, it's strange that Twitch has directed this demonetisation towards Amouranth's channel with no notice to the streamer, and she claims that it's "alarming" news for other content creators.
"Yesterday I was informed that Twitch has indefinitely suspended advertising on my channel," she said on social media. "Twitch didn't reach out in any way whatsoever. I had to initiate the conversation after noticing, without any prior warning, all the ads revenue had disappeared from my channel analytics." Amouranth isn't only a Twitch streamer, as she has a presence on YouTube, OnlyFans and Instagram too, but she pointed out that actions like this from Twitch could threaten the livelihood of streamers. "I'm lucky I'm diversified, but for people who aren't, that's a big portion [of their income] they could be losing," she continued the conversation while streaming.
"It affects more than just hot tub streamers," explained Amouranth. "It goes beyond, 'Yeah, doing something to thots!' Like, if they continue doing this to people who aren't 'advertiser-friendly,' it could affect a lot of people." She iterated that partners should be aware of the possibility that this could happen to them too, though she hasn't decided on whether she'll discuss reinstating adverts on her channel with the company. "'Welcome to the most shameless stream on Twitch'?" she said on today's stream, reading out a comment from the chat. "Now with no ads! For your viewing experience!"
Featured Image Credit: Amouranth via Twitch