Twitch streamer ‘SHiFT’ hit back at the platform after one of his Spongebob Squarepants-themed emotes was removed because it “contained sexual content”.
SHiFT is a professional Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom streamer. So naturally, he would have a lot of Spongebob-inspired emotes for his subscribers.
Unfortunately for him, one of those emotes was deemed too sexual by Twitch’s standards, and the streamer took to Twitter to express his displeasure.
“HAHAHHAHA TWITCH YOURE JOKING RIGHT?” he tweeted on September 15 after the platform classified the emote as ‘imagery of sexual content or nudity’.
HAHAHHAHA TWITCH YOURE JOKING RIGHT???? pic.twitter.com/nyQDmxHphD
— SHiFT (@shiftposting) September 15, 2019
The emote in question is in reference to a classic episode of Spongebob, where he rips his pants on accident to great comedic effect, and then proceeds to repeat the joke over and over to less of a reaction each time.
SHiFT’s version features the phrase ‘RIP’ on Spongebob’s ripped pants, and is presumably used by chat whenever he dies in-game.
While the platform banned the emote, no part of Spongebob’s rear end is exposed in the image.
SHiFT followed up the screenshot with a fiery rant on the double standards of Twitch:
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“Honestly Twitch get fucking real,” SHiFT said online. “When I go around and see horny boobie emotes everywhere on this site but I can’t have the iconic spongebob pants rip as an emote that’s how you know we’ve got top tier moderation and guidelines on this website.”
Honestly Twitch get fucking real. When I go around and see horny boobie emotes everywhere on this site but I can’t have the iconic spongebob pants rip as an emote that’s how you know we’ve got top tier moderation and guidelines on this website.
— SHiFT (@shiftposting) September 15, 2019
The artist who made the emote for the streamer chipped in as well:
“I’m really hoping it doesn’t go to waste because blocking it for sexual content even though there’s nothing sexual about it at all is really disrespectful to the creators who busted their ass working on it.” they said.
Is really disrespectful to the creators who busted their ass working on it. I really hope that this can be resolved because shift already had a bout with twitch about the previous F emote. so I really hoped which can open up their eyes and get the stick out of their ass.
— Dotty (@ThusSqueakedDot) September 15, 2019
Twitch has been in action regarding its sexual content procedures recently, including handing out bans to popular streamers Bridgett and Amouranth. The same day SHiFT had his emote banned, another streamer called out Twitch’s double standards after getting a nudity warning for drawing hentai on an 18+ stream.
SHiFT has been streaming Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom since 2016, and holds records for speedrunning the game.
