Issues in Digital Media

   Twitch is a live streaming video platform that primarily concentrates on video game live streaming, however it is deriving from its original platform that includes various content. Twitch has recently has come under fire because of their hypocritical stance of their guidelines. In their community guidelines listed (https://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/983016), it adresses rules that Twitch will enforce for all users. Recently, the content on Twitch has gotten more sexually explicit with new live streamers.  Although, according to Twitch’s guidelines: “Any content or activity involving pornography, sexual intercourse, or adult services is prohibited.” However, there are so many of these live streamers that exploit their bodies on Twitch and Twitch still does not ban them. Another example of how Twitch plays favoritism towards these users is that Twitch will ban other users that stay within their guidelines but, still manage to get banned by the smallest of mistakes. For instance, the user Westener was banned for playing a game that was not out in the U.S but in the country that he was living/streaming in, Twitch still banned him. One user that displays explicit content even mentioned that she talked to a Twitch administrator and they personally told her that she will not get banned for the content that she displays.

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     In this project, I wanted to create one fake account(s) that contains content that can get a suspension from Twitch and what limits does this gray area overlay.In situations where Twitch does ban my accounts, I will use a random name generator and create at least ten unique email addresses, in case of suspension. These accounts will contain content that will violate one or more of the guidelines. In addition, these streaming videos are mainly used to exploit Twitch’s system and reveal how certain websites go against their word and are hypocritical when dealing with suspension issues. Another reason for this is to compare the popularity of Twitch in the present time since, the demand for live streams have skyrocketed since the game industry largely progressed. Twitch’s popularity has them over their head and it has leaded them to hypocrisies and favoritism.

In this fake account, I will make live streams that have displays of sexual content but there will a variety of ways to show this. For example, there could be a live stream on a woman in tight clothing vs a man in tight clothing. The tight clothing will show off their curves and lots of skin, it will hide nothing to the eye even if they were naked. During their live stream, they will just be eating, talking, doing everyday tasks and they will be taking requests from the chat (however, it cannot be harmful or something that they are not comfortable doing). Another live stream video that shows explicit content is for someone to be watching/reading sexual content on a steam, the audience will be able to see what the streamer is watching/reading. By using these types of videos, I am showing the borderlines of where you can cross with explicit content and how fast Twitch will ban these channels or if they do not.

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   In another livestream set of videos, where it primarily focus on video game live streaming. There will be a set of streams that only contain games like: The Witcher 3, Yandere Simulator, Bioshock, Terraia, etc. However, in these live streams there will slight alterations like how in one stream the audience only be able to hear the commentary and the gameplay, they will not be shown the streamer. Although, the only catch is that the game will primarily focus on explicit or crude language. For example, in Witcher 3, the gameplay has scenes of nudity that drives the plot of the game but, in the Yandere Simulator, sexual content is its only contenter. In the other gaming livestream, the audience will be able to see the streamer but they will be playing tamer games like Terraria or Undertale, these games do not have explicit content. However, the streamer will be wearing revealing clothing. This relates back to how I want to be able to show how this type of content that highlights Twitch’s community guidelines and if they choose to suspend the account or not.

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     The ultimate goal that I would obtain from this project is to gain self-satisfaction and some sort of twisted justice for exposing Twitch for their hypocritical ways. However, this project may backfire since Twitch may ban every single account for violating their guidelines. This can illustrate that Twitch does manage their company according to their guidelines and the live streamers that were banned from simple acts were actually violating Twitch’s rules. This would mean that the live streamers that I was parodying in the videos would still be violating Twitch’s rules but, the videos that I “made” were suspended. This would further implement Twitch’s favoritism towards certain users.

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   There are unintended consequences that might negatively impact the Twitch community and how others would view Twitch in a negative light. Although Twitch has several negative aspects that I have not touched upon, I know that Twitch has many positive attributions. For example, Twitch popularized video game live streaming and it enabled people from all over the world to contribute their talents and connect with others online. By using these tactics that I described, I know that there would bad backlash on my part and  the company itself. I think that by bringing these issues to light (even in a hypothetical scenario) would create controversy because these ‘experiments’ are parodies of actual people that do these sorts of things for a living. By making these videos, it would be like discrediting and devaluing their content, just to prove a point. However 

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