Ex-Street Fighter pro and Cross Counter TV owner Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez has responded to Twitch’s removal of PogChamp emote by uploading a new response video talking about Twitch’s decision to remove the original PogChamp emote and how it’s wrong.
On January 6 right after the failed extremist attack on US Capitol, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez tweeted out asking his fans on Twitter if there would be a “civil unrest for the woman who was executed inside the Capitol”. Shortly after his tweet went viral, Twitch acted quickly and deemed that Gooteck’s tweet about the Capitol violence goes against the platform’s TOS and was “encouraging further violence”. Right after that, Twitch removed the PogChamp emote.
“We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today.“
“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 the use of the image.”
Twitch swiftly implemented a new solution and decided to introduce a “New PogChamp” emote daily featuring various streamers on the platform.
Announcing the response video on Twitter, Gooteck tweeted out saying
“I got been locked out of Twitter for tweets about [HCQ] on 08/04, not the video I posted 01/06.
Twitch has chosen to remove the PogChamp emote from the platform(?) as a response to a tweet.
My response will be on YouTube soon.”
While the new solution is working as intended, the original face of PogChamp emotes Gooteck was unhappy with the way Twitch handled the situation. In the response video uploaded on his Cross Counter TV Youtube Channel, Gooteck pointed out inconsistencies in the actions of both Twitter and Twitch. While his Tweet was deemed “unwanted and inciting violence” by Twitch, the social media site in question — Twitter didn’t take any action against his Tweet and only locked his account temporarily for another tweet.
