The second wave of Twitch DMCA takedowns is in full force, and the ban hammer almost crashed down on unsuspecting partnered streamers Clix and SquishyMuffinz.
The last couple of weeks have been difficult for Twitch streamers. They’ve been getting rocked with DMCA takedown notifications, forcing them to delete clips and VODs from their channel that contain copyrighted music.
It has affected everyone, regardless of their popularity and prominence. JakeNBake, LIRIK, and Pokimane are notable examples. However, it’s also led to actual bans with little to no explanation. This even happened to Dragonforce’s Herman Li.
The situation even sparked a reaction from Shroud, who believes streamers should have taken a “united front” on the issue. In his view, this would have helped overturn the rules, but now he thinks it’s too little too late.
Still, the DMCA issue hasn’t faded away.
The second wave of takedowns is out in full force, and it’s crashed down on two popular streamers: Cody “Clix” Conrod and Mariano “SquishyMuffinz” Arruda.
Clix is a professional Fortnite player currently signed with NRG Esports. He also has around 2.1 million followers on Twitch and is an official partner of the platform. Still, that wasn’t enough to make him immune to a DMCA strike.
“2nd dmca strike, one more and i’m banned forever, he said. “I did everything they told me to legit all my vods and clips”
— Clix (@ClixHimself) November 2, 2020
A similar thing happened to SquishyMuffinz, a professional Rocket League player with more than 600 thousand followers on Twitch. However, he copped a full ban right out of the gate.
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“Banned from twitch,” said SquishyMuffinz. “Is there anything I can do to fix this?”
Banned from twitch, is there anything I can do to fix this?
— SquishyMuffinz (@SquishyMuffinz) November 2, 2020
Fortunately, the ban was overturned. However, he’s been forced to delete every single VOD and Clip, which means he won’t be able to stream today.
“Deleting all my VODS Clips ETC, not taking anymore chances in the future,” he said. “Thank you to the community for all the support. I’ll try to stream tomorrow, gonna deal with the VODS and clips for today.”
Deleting all my VODS Clips ETC, not taking anymore chances in the future, thank you to the community for all the support I’ll try to stream tomorrow, gonna deal with the VODS and clips for today. https://t.co/LQnDTiBUgP
— SquishyMuffinz (@SquishyMuffinz) November 2, 2020
Twitch has been ruthless in their DMCA crackdown. However, in the end, it seems like streamers would rather lose years worth of content than cop a ban.
The consensus is that it’s not a fair ultimatum, but what else can they do? They don’t have a choice but to cave in and adhere to Twitch’s demands if they want to use their platform.
- Read more: xQc slams Twitch viewers “shaming” streamers
It’s possible things will change in the future, especially if streamers are able to ‘unionize’. But until that happens, the makeshift solution is to delete all their clips and carry on.
Either way, it’s a strange time for streamers and their viewers.
