Street Fighter pro and Cross Counter TV founder Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez has finally responded after Twitch removed his famous PogChamp emote for allegedly “encouraging violence.”
On January 6, Gootecks asked his fans on Twitter if there would be “civil unrest for the woman who was executed inside the Capitol” after the day’s controversial events unfolded.
Shortly after making this remark, Twitch deemed that Gutierrez was “encouraging further violence” and made the decision to remove the emote, further noting they “can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.”
While a temporary solution is underway, with a new PogChamp emote popping up every twenty-four hours, Gootecks doesn’t approve of the way Twitch handled the situation.
We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself– and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can't in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.
— Twitch (@Twitch) January 7, 2021
In a new response video uploaded to the Cross Counter TV YouTube channel, the original face of the emote pointed out some interesting inconsistencies from Twitter and Twitch. (Segment begins at 19:00)
Primarily, he noted how Twitter made the decision to ban the US President’s account for “encouraging violence,” but not Gootecks’ tweet.
“It’s not like Twitter isn’t going through people’s tweets with a fine-tooth comb to determine whether or not they’re inciting violence, am I right?” he rhetorically asked. “And I’m not saying that I have the type of reach and influence that the President does, I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my account got locked after what I posted.”
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From this, he pulled up tweets he made that resulted in Twitter locking his account, but his tweet about civil unrest wasn’t a culprit, suggesting that it was fine by Twitter’s standards.
“They’re looking for people that are trying to incite violence, but that’s not what they found on my account,” he said. “So, why is it then, that Twitch seems to have decision making super powers? Because in less than three hours from when I uploaded the video, they made the decision to remove PogChamp as a global emote.”
“You can’t make this stuff up,” he concluded, ending his video.
So far, it doesn’t seem like Twitch has any plans to reinstate Gootecks as the face of PogChamp, but they do understand the emote’s importance in the platform’s culture.
In any case, we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the emote as 2021 rolls on.
