It’s been a rough few weeks for Amazon-owned streaming site Twitch. Earlier this month, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the platform’s biggest star, announced he would leave for Microsoft’s streaming service Mixer. Over the weekend, a pornographic video was promoted on Blevins’ old page.
After the inappropriate material was flagged, Twitch responded by removing the content and CEO Emmett Shear issued an apology.
According to Shear, the pornographic video in question came up on the Ninja Twitch channel, as the site promotes live video recommendations on accounts that don’t have a live stream playing at the time. Shear also said the offending account was in violation of Twitch’s terms of service and has been permanently suspended. Twitch’s recommendation mechanism has also been suspended, in light of the incident.
Despite the high-profile hiccup, don’t count Twitch out yet, says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. “I think this will be yesterday’s news as soon as tomorrow,” he adds.
The news of the Ninja channel’s pornographic video gained traction as Blevins called out Twitch online. Blevins said he was “disgusted” on Twitter adding, “This wouldn’t even have been an issue if they didnt [sic] use my channel to promote others in the first place…”
Disgusted and so sorry. Pic.twitter.com/gnUY5Kp52E
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019
In addition to offering background on the situation, Shear addressed Blevins directly.
“On a more personal note, I apologize want to apologize directly to @ninja that this happened. It wasn’t our intent, but it should not have happened. No excuses,” Shear added on Twitter.
Pachter notes that the move was the right response for the company, helping ensure the news blows over sooner rather than later. “It would be one thing if the response was, ‘We’re not sorry,'” he says.
4/ On a more personal note, I apologize want to apologize directly to @ninja that this happened. It wasn’t our intent, but it should not have happened. No excuses.
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 11, 2019
Even losing Blevins in the first place isn’t expected to serve as Twitch’s death knell. Pachter equates the situation to Netflix losing Friends come 2020. A sizable portion of Netflix’s viewers spend a great deal of time watching Friends—just as Twitch’s audience has followed Blevins—but the fans are already on the site and looking at other shows or streamers.
“If you have the content, people will come,” Pachter said. “There’s always going to be a new hit. They’re always going to have a new guy or girl.”
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