Game Rant: Twitch Reveals 2 New Modding Features . “Twitch has announced two moderation features, which are intended to make a live streamer’s community safer. These two features are the ability to share a banned user’s comments and a new ‘shield mode’ alongside the current ‘Mod View’ that is integrated into the streaming platform’s available features. These new Twitch tools are available now for moderators to experiment with and try out.”
4 New York: Twitch streamer arrested after ‘inciting a riot’ of thousands in Manhattan . “A famous video game influencer known for streaming on Twitch is in custody after a giveaway event attracting thousands of young people sparked pandemonium in Manhattan’s Union Square. The Friday afternoon event advertised by Kai Cenat, one of the most popular streamers online, grew out of control well before its scheduled 4 p.m. start time. Police estimates suggest the crowd size eventually climbed to a “couple thousand people.”
Associated Press: Twitch expands its ban on gambling livestreams. It also says viewership of the content is down 75%. “Amazon-owned Twitch said Wednesday it’s expanding the ban on livestreams of gambling content on the platform. The company said it will now prohibit streams of online casinos Blaze and Gamdom, adding to the four sites it banned last October when its new gambling policy went into effect.”
Tubefilter: Kick surges to 12 million signups and cuts “unnecessary exposure” to controversial categories. “The platform–which has been working overtime to pitch itself as a viable alternative to Twitch–was co-founded by Stake.com co-founder Ed Craven, and since the beginning has made it clear that, unlike Twitch, it’s a haven for gambling streams. But it seems to have realized rampantly promoting gambling might not be the best move.”
Engadget: Twitch is finally adding Stories and a feed for discovering new streamers to watch . “It’s probably safe to say no one could have predicted that LinkedIn would add Stories before Twitch, but here we are. Nearly eight years after Instagram lifted the feature from Snapchat, Twitch announced Saturday that its own users will be able to begin recording Stories starting later this year.”
Kotaku: Twitch’s New Ad Rules Are Very Bad For Streamers [Update]. “On June 6, popular streaming service Twitch rolled out a set of new advertisement rules that spell trouble for streamers large and small. The rules are directly related to branded content streamers add into their streams, which are a crucial source of revenue for creators, and the new set of rules could very well mean major consequences for your favorite streamers.”
Bloomberg: Instagram, Google See Surge in Reports of Online Child Abuse. “Reports of child exploitation online increased at many of the biggest tech and social media firms over the last year, including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. TikTok, Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch, Reddit Inc., and the chat apps Omegle and Discord Inc. also saw increases, according to a Tuesday report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”
Washington Post: How Twitch lost its way. “Delivering live video content to millions of people, 24 hours per day, is expensive, and as Twitch grows, it incurs greater costs. But Twitch’s moves in pursuit of profitability have confused and upset creators, fans and staff. Creators have decried new monetization schemes that put the onus on them to run more ads.”
Tubefilter: Twitch will permaban streamers who create, share, or promote deepfakes. “Twitch has updated its policies to explicitly ban ‘intentionally promoting, creating, or sharing’ deepfake NSFW images.”
Gizmodo: AI Seinfeld Show ‘Nothing, Forever’ Gets Un-Cancelled. “Nothing, Forever, the AI-generated and Seinfeld-inspired Twitch stream that first launched in December 2022, is coming back online. The company behind the surreal vortex of animated 90’s New York nostalgia, Mismatch Media, announced the show’s return Tuesday night on Twitter.” Almost hypnotically weird.
Tubefilter: What’s new on Twitch? A rundown of ongoing experiments keeps streamers in the know. “The page includes details about Twitch’s operations, classifications for its various test types, and examples of existing features that were once subject to this experimental process. The post identifies Pinned Chat and Chat Highlights as two developments that were refined through rigorous testing.”
The Verge: The AI-powered Seinfeld spoof is set to return to Twitch with new guardrails in place. “The AI-generated Seinfeld spoof was suspended for making transphobic remarks, but its makers say there are new content moderation systems in place.”
Motherboard: ‘You Feel So Violated’: Streamer QTCinderella Is Speaking Out Against Deepfake Porn Harassment. “Two weeks ago, Twitch streamer Brandon Ewing, who goes by Atrioc online, inadvertently showed his open browser tabs while doing a live stream in front of some of his 318,000 followers, revealing that he visited a website selling deepfakes—AI-generated, non-consensual pornographic videos—of fellow streamers.”
Motherboard: ‘Nothing, Forever’ Is An Endless ‘Seinfeld’ Episode Generated by AI. “There is one woman and three men who seem to be the animated versions of Seinfeld’s main characters, Elaine, Jerry, George, and Kramer. But unlike Seinfeld, these characters are set in a modern-era NYC, and their voices and bodies look and sound robotic. That’s because ‘Nothing, Forever’ is a live-streaming show that’s almost entirely generated by algorithms. It’s been streaming non-stop on Twitch since December 14.” I’ve never seen an episode of Seinfeld so I lack context, but this is some weird stuff.
Tubefilter: There’s an AI VTuber now and it has 70,000 followers on Twitch. “As her name implies, Neuro-sama is essentially a neural network with a VTuber-style face. Her creator, who goes by the anonymous title Vedal, has steered their virtual creation to a substantial following on Twitch. On the vedal987 channel, Neuro-sama streams games like Minecraft, and her gameplay is strong enough that it doesn’t immediately give her away as an artificial intelligence. Her abilities are fascinating enough to draw more than 70,000 followers on Twitch.”
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