Twitch suspends advertising on popular hot tub streamer's channel

[midian182]

A hot potato: It appears Twitch has decided that hot tub meta streams are just a bit too steamy for the platform. One of its famous female stars and someone who has embraced the phenomenon of streaming in a bikini, Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa, can no longer run ads on her videos---despite not technically breaking any of Twitch's rules.

Hot tub streams, which started gaining popularity last year, really took off in March, leading to people declaring them the new "meta." Many of these broadcasts follow much of the same formula as regular streams---playing games, talking to viewers, and so on---except the presenters are in hot tubs wearing swimsuits.

Siragusa is well known for her hot tub streams. With 20,000 subscribers, she's currently ranked the 22nd most popular streamer on Twitch. But her success hasn't come without controversy. Much like those female streamers that face criticism over their revealing costumes, streaming from a hot tub attracts plenty of detractors who claim presenters are using their bodies to attract views and subs. Felix' xQc' Lengyel, Twitch's second most popular streamer, branded it "pathetic."

IM GONNA BE HONNEST, THIS HOT TUB META IS BY FAR THE MOST PATHETIC THING WE'VE SEEN ON TWITCH IN FOREVER. WHAT A SAD REALITY. PLEASE GET THIS TRASH OFF THE FRONTPAGE

--- xQc (@xQc) April 19, 2021

Twitch does allow streamers to appear on camera in their swimsuits if the context (I.e. in a hot tub) allows, but the Amazon-owned company said it was "monitoring" the situation. Now, it appears to have made a decision.

This is an ALARMING precedent and serves as a stark warning that although content may not ostensibly break community guidelines or Terms of service, Twitch has complete discretion to target individual channels & partially or wholly demonetized them for

--- Amouranth (@Amouranth) May 18, 2021

"Yesterday I was informed that Twitch has indefinitely suspended advertising on my channel," Siragusa tweeted. "Twitch didn't reach out in any way whatsoever. I had to initiate the conversation after noticing, without any prior warning, all the ads revenue had disappeared from my channel analytics."

Siragusa believes her demonetization is due to hot tub streams being "not advertiser friendly."

"Many people complain about [Twitch's terms of service] being 'unclear,' but at least there's something to go by," she wrote. "There is no known policy for what results in a streamer being put on this blacklist. With characteristic opacity, the only thing Twitch made clear is that it is unclear whether or when my account can be reinstated."

Kotaku notes that Siragusa makes money from Instagram, OnlyFans, YouTube, and brand sponsors, among others, but she said that some other streamers, and not just those in hot tubs, who rely on Twitch revenue could suffer if the company keeps clamping down content it deems inappropriate.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/89735-twitch-suspends-advertising-top-hot-tub-streamer-channel.html

 

[yRaz]

Who cares what people watch in the comfort of their own home? This is essentially softcore porn and people don't have a problem with pornstars making money. While twitch might not be the best platform for this kind of thing you should atleast let the advertisers decide what is friendly for their product.

This whole thing kind of stinks.

And one final note, calling hottub streaming a "meta" has to be one of the most cringe things I've ever heard. Anyone calling something outside of games "meta" without good reason should be thoroughly ignored.

 

[DukeJukem]

I remember the days when you used to have to actually do something productive in order to make money. Now you can literally make money by sitting and standing.....and that's it lol.

"Yo dawg I had a super long day at the office. I sat around for 8+ hours playing video games....boy am I exhausted. All those mouse clicks are really starting to stiffen up muh fingers."

"Hey buddy if you think that's bad I had to stand around in a hot tub ALL DAY. I mean look at my feet! They're pruning for crying out loud."

"HEY! Don't even get me started about hot tubs and video games buddy. I had to stand in front of a mirror and take selfies all day! After that I worked up a pretty good sweat doing this cam show today. Here I was worrying about working off the carbs from that Ritz cracker I had."

 

[Hexic]

Bahaha, good.

Go act like a h0e somewhere else, there are other sites for that that will pay you money for you throwing away dignity one donation at a time.

Twitch isn't that site, and it's an embarrassment that it's taken them this long to realize that.

 

[Dimitriid]

I remember the days when you used to have to actually do something productive in order to make money. Now you can literally make money by sitting and standing.....and that's it lol.

And yet I would easily argue that playing video games for other people to see is only a tiny notch more "productive" than letting people see you take a bath on your bathing suit for their titillation. Just saying it's not wise to throw rocks through a glass house.

 

[mbk34]

I guess twitch and techspot both have to decide whether they need to break into the soft porn market. I obviously came to read about new the technological advances in hot tubs (on which the article was rather light). I have no idea why everyone else came to the article.

 

[poohbear]

These women prefer Twitch because there's no competition for them and they can rack up followers like nobody's business. Imagine a video game streamer going on Pornhub because there's no video game streamers there? It's absurd. There are lots of children on Twitch, these women need to go to on any number of the 1000s of softcore platforms out there, and leave Twitch to gaming.

 

[poohbear]

And yet I would easily argue that playing video games for other people to see is only a tiny notch more "productive" than letting people see you take a bath on your bathing suit for their titillation. Just saying it's not wise to throw rocks through a glass house.

how's this different from soccer? Or basketball? Sending balls through goal posts or hoops is hardly productive to anyone. I don't get your point.

 

[Dimitriid]

how's this different from soccer? Or basketball? Sending balls through goal posts or hoops is hardly productive to anyone. I don't get your point.

It's not: none of them are really "producing" anything but entertainment and so is this woman.

The OP was the one that brought up being "productive" and ways to "make money" as if that was some sort of moral higher ground from people being midly-good-to-mediocre at playing video games and being humorous on a stream.

Twitch as a platform ultimately goes for the low hanging fruit here and some of the more explicit video games that get censored out of the platform but the only thing that this is accomplishing is precisely what you are seeing on this very discussing thread: A bunch of misogyny and derision towards something that's in my opinion 100% legitimate like sex work.

"Go somewhere else" It's a tried and true argument to remove anybody having anything to do with sexuality into pragmatic irrelevance and oscurity. It's why there was a concentrated effort to remove financial institution support from Pornhub. It's why prostitution is still at the best of cases, "decriminalized" but serves only the purpose of subjugating sex workers and it's why people think it's ok to antagonize women just because they show their bodies and get some cash out of it from people willing to indulge.

 

[amghwk]

Well, porn in any form sells. Maybe she should seek Pornhub for more steamy streaming. I'm sure they're ready to help with these kind of videos.

I never watch Twitch. I would rather play the games myself than watching others play.

It's getting worse, though. The humanity. Now they are even watching others steaming their sleep.

 

[Avro Arrow]

"Not advertiser friendly"
I dunno, she looks pretty friendly to me. Where is all this sexual puritanism coming from? A renewal of the "War is great but boobs are bad!" BS from the 80s and 90s is NOT something that we need in this day and age.

So, Twitch is becoming the new YouTube. How woinderful.

 

[VitalyT]

Reminds me of a piece from The Ugly Truth movie...

 

[Avro Arrow]

And yet I would easily argue that playing video games for other people to see is only a tiny notch more "productive" than letting people see you take a bath on your bathing suit for their titillation. Just saying it's not wise to throw rocks through a glass house.

I would easily agree with you and go further by saying that playing video games is not even a tiny notch more productive that a bikini-clad woman in a Jacuzzi. You're 100% right.

I guess twitch and techspot both have to decide whether they need to break into the soft porn market. I obviously came to read about new the technological advances in hot tubs (on which the article was rather light). I have no idea why everyone else came to the article.

I came to the article because these corporations really piss me off when they pretend to be "morally superior" when I know that they have no morals. The only reason that they play games like this is for the same reason that they do everything else. They think that it will bring them more money.

These women prefer Twitch because there's no competition for them and they can rack up followers like nobody's business. Imagine a video game streamer going on Pornhub because there's no video game streamers there? It's absurd. There are lots of children on Twitch, these women need to go to on any number of the 1000s of softcore platforms out there, and leave Twitch to gaming.

So, a woman on Twitch in a bikini is inappropriate for children? Well then, beaches and swimming pools should also be considered inappropriate as well. We should ban bikinis in public because heaven forbid a child should see a woman wearing one. Are you from the fragile Victorian era? I only ask because that's exactly how backwards you sound.

It also appears that you don't know the definition of soft-core porn because you seem to think that a woman in a bikini in a jacuzzi is the definition of it and you're completely wrong. Soft-core porn is EXACTLY like hard-core porn except that penetration isn't shown (or is only simulated). A woman in a bikini is not even considered to be nudity, let alone your weird definition of "soft-core porn" and is considered to be PG at most. If it's legal in public, it should be legal on Twitch when it comes to things like this, end of story.

Now of course, if she's talking about sexual topics, that's another story but it doesn't say anywhere in the article that she's doing anything but normal social chatter. I'd be really surprised if she was doing any sexy talk because she would know that she'd be crossing a dangerous line in that case.

I recommend that you go to beaches and tell women in bikinis to "go somewhere else" because there are thousands of pole-dancing clubs that they should be at, safely away from the poor children. Tell us all how well that goes over because what you said sounds every bit as absurd as that.

If it's legal in public, then it should be legal on Twitch, end of story.

"Go somewhere else" It's a tried and true argument to remove anybody having anything to do with sexuality into pragmatic irrelevance and oscurity. It's why there was a concentrated effort to remove financial institution support from Pornhub. It's why prostitution is still at the best of cases, "decriminalized" but serves only the purpose of subjugating sex workers and it's why people think it's ok to antagonize women just because they show their bodies and get some cash out of it from people willing to indulge.

I really don't understand the obsession that some of these people have with women doing what most men want to see anyway. It's really pathetic and I agree with you 100%, again.

 

[envirovore]

So stream on OnlyFans or another site that supports users that choose to wear whatever they like (or nothing at all).

Getting outraged that a platform which has been known to over-react to anything that may upset the masses or corporate investors has slapped you for showing off your cleavage, youre wasting your breath.

Just shift to another platform with a note on your profile that you stream there now.
Your followers will go with you, particularly with the hopes they'll be seeing more very soon once the 'no-nudity' restriction is lifted.

Which, she'll learn soon enough that her following was there for only one thing when it starts to thin out once the option for nudity on stream exists but no nudity happens.

 

[envirovore]

"Not advertiser friendly"
I dunno, she looks pretty friendly to me. Where is all this sexual puritanism coming from? A renewal of the "War is great but boobs are bad!" BS from the 80s and 90s is NOT something that we need in this day and age.

So, Twitch is becoming the new YouTube. How woinderful.

This is what happens when a bunch of bible thumpers run the show in a country that claims to have no official religion and separation of church and state.
Claims to, being key words there.

Titties and (consentual) sex: bad. Murder, intolerance, and rape: good.

 

[Dimitriid]

Well, porn in any form sells. Maybe she should seek Pornhub for more steamy streaming. I'm sure they're ready to help with these kind of videos.

Twitch rule enforcing what's effectively a dress code is a far cry from someone deciding to do pornography. By this logic, any teenage girl that decides to dress provocatively or do something as simple as going to the beach should be immediately and publicly shamed and immediately forced into a career path WE KNOW ostracizes people away from public life like being a sex worker.

What you support out of a platform like Twitch should be no different from what you would desire upon your daughter for something as innocuous as what's happening here.

Also thanks for proving my point: as I mentioned above most sex workers are now actively moving away from pornhub thanks to the recent removal of all regular payment options and now only accepting crypto currency which most users won't get just for the site.

 

[DukeJukem]

And yet I would easily argue that playing video games for other people to see is only a tiny notch more "productive" than letting people see you take a bath on your bathing suit for their titillation. Just saying it's not wise to throw rocks through a glass house.

not wise but fun.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Which, she'll learn soon enough that her following was there for only one thing when it starts to thin out once the option for nudity on stream exists but no nudity happens.

I know that you're trying to be diplomatic but that's a completely different animal. What she's doing isn't porn or adult content. I would think of her stream as kind of a "lounge" to hang out while waiting for your favourite streamer to come online or to chat about things after you've done watching whatever stream you were there for to begin with. If her cleavage was the only reason that people followed her, they'd be on Chaturbate, StripChat or MyFreeCams instead. They wouldn't be watching her.

 

[Avro Arrow]

This is what happens when a bunch of bible thumpers run the show in a country that claims to have no official religion and separation of church and state.
Claims to, being key words there.

Titties and (consentual) sex: bad. Murder, intolerance, and rape: good.

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

This is what happens when a company like Amazon controls it. That is why I was happy when Discord didn't get bought by Microsoft.

 

[envirovore]

I know that you're trying to be diplomatic but that's a completely different animal. What she's doing isn't porn or adult content. I would think of her stream as kind of a "lounge" to hang out while waiting for your favourite streamer to come online or to chat about things after you've done watching whatever stream you were there for to begin with. If her cleavage was the only reason that people followed her, they'd be on Chaturbate, StripChat or MyFreeCams instead. They wouldn't be watching her.

Valid consideration really, and not a bad way to view the situation.
Not unlike unwinding at a bar with a pretty bartender to shoot the sh*t with, in that context.

 

[envirovore]

I laughed way harder at this than I probably should have.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Valid consideration really, and not a bad way to view the situation.
Not unlike unwinding at a bar with a pretty bartender to shoot the sh*t with, in that context.

EGG-ZACTLY! If she's fun to talk to, that alone could explain her popularity. People underestimate the value of that. When I was in my 20s (god I feel old saying $hit like that...lol), I used to go to strip clubs a lot (having a girlfriend who swung both ways sure helped too,heheheh).

What I learnt from those days is that, just like everything else, once the initial "wow factor" of (in this woman's case) her magnificent cleavage wears off, if she's about as interesting as a mule to talk to, her channel will fail.

If this woman has 20,000 subscribers, it's because she's interesting, articulate and fun to talk to. Sure, her looks might bring 'em in, but it's who she is as a person that keeps them there and keeps them coming back.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I laughed way harder at this than I probably should have.

I do aim to please...

I remember hearing "A picture is worth 1000 words" or something to that effect somewhere...

I also learnt that if you show the cover of an album for a well-known song, that song will play in the reader's head for added effect. heheheheh

 

[Avro Arrow]

This is what happens when a company like Amazon controls it. That is why I was happy when Discord didn't get bought by Microsoft.

I agree. It's why I shudder at the thought of Amazon buying MGM.