Tag Archives: Twitch

Twitch has Been Hacked



Twitch, a streaming service where a lot of streamers make money by playing video games and interacting with those who come to watch, has been hacked. The news was first reported by Video Games Chronicle. It is highly recommended that those who have a Twitch account change their passwords and enable 2FA. It has also been recommended that streamers reset their stream key.

According to Video Games Chronicle, an anonymous hacker claims to have leaked the entirety of Twitch, including its source code and user payout information. One anonymous source at Twitch told Video Games Chronicle that the leaked data is legitimate, including the source code for the Amazon-zoned streaming platform.

Here’s what the leaked Twitch data reportedly includes:

  •  The entirety of Twitch’s source code with comment history “going back to its early beginnings”.
  •  Creator payout reports from 2019
  •  Mobile, desktop and console Twitch clients
  •  Proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services used by Twitch
  • “Every other property that Twitch owns” including IGDB and CurseForge
  •  An unrelated Steam competitor, codenamed Vapor, from Amazon Game Studios
  •  Twitch internal ‘red teaming’ tools (designed to improve security by having staff pretend to be hackers)

The Verge reported that the leak was legitimate and that it includes code that is as recent as this week. According to The Verge, this leak is labeled “part one”, indicating that there could be more to come.

The Verge also reported that an anonymous poster on the 4chan messaging board has released a 125GB torrent, which they claim includes the entirety of Twitch and its commit history. According to The Verge, the poster claimed that the leak is designed to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space.”

Twitch confirmed the breach on its Twitter account. @Twitch tweeted: “We can confirm a breach has taken place. Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.”

Twitch has been through a series of unfortunate events, most of which it failed to gain control of. Many streamers (especially people who are Black, LGBTQ+ or disabled) were hit by waves of “hate raids”. There are what seems to be an unending series of bots that come into streams and fill the chat with absolutely vile words. Many streamers collectively took a day off of Twitch in protest.


Twitch Filed Complaint Against Two Users Over Alleged “Hate Raids”



Twitch has filed a lawsuit against perpetrators who were allegedly using Twitch’s service for “hate raids”. This action definitely shows the Twitch is aware of the “hate raids”. It is unclear whether or not the result of the lawsuit will actually improve the experience of people who stream on Twitch.

A “raid” is a feature where a streamer, who is done for the day, sends the people in their chat to the chat of another streamer. Usually, the other streamer is playing the same game, or a similar one. A “raid” is intended to be a nice thing. “Hate raids” are violating, both for the streamer and the people in their chat.

Wired appears to be the first to report about the complaint that Twitch filed. According to Wired, the lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

…It targets two users, identified only as “Cruzzcontrol” and “CreatineOverdose”, whom Twitch believes are based, respectively, in the Netherlands and Vienna, Austria. Twitch, in the suit, says it initially took “swift action” by suspending and then permanently banning their accounts. However, it reads, “They evaded Twitch’s bans by creating new, alternate, Twitch accounts and continually altering their self-described ‘hate raid code’ to avoid detection and suspension by Twitch….

Polygon posted a copy of the complaint. Here is what Twitch is asking for:

That Defendants and their officers, agents, representatives, servants, employees, successors and assigns, and all others in active concert and participation with Defendants be preliminary and permanently enjoined from:

Using or accessing the Twitch Services;

Posting content on the Twitch Services, including in the Twitch chat function, that is prohibited by the Terms, including racist, homophobic, xenophobic, or any other harassing content.

Assisting any individual or company in engaging in the conduct described above

An award to Twitch of restitution and damages, including, but not limited to, enhanced, liquidated, compensatory, special, and punitive damages, and all other damages permitted by law

An award to Twitch for its cost incurred in this suit, including, but not limited to, reasonable attorney’s fees.

In addition, Twitch is demanding a trial by jury.

Polygon reported that a spokesperson from Twitch told them “We hope this Complaint will shed light on the identity of the individuals behind these attacks and the tools they exploit, dissuade them from taking similar behaviors on other services, and help put an end to these vile attacks against members of our community”.


Twitch Streamers are Struggling with DMCA Takedowns



Twitch streamers have recently been facing takedowns under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). According to The Verge, he claimant was the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It appears that the RIAA is going after clips, some of which may have been created several years ago.

It appears that Twitch was taken by surprise by the takedown requests. Twitch Support tweeted: “This week, we’ve had a sudden influx of DMCA takedown requests for clips with background music from 2017-19. If you’re unsure about rights to audio in past streams, we advise removing those clips. We know many of you have large archives, and we’re working to make this easier.”

Twitch also tweeted: “This is the first time we have received mass DMCA claims against clips.” A third tweet included a link to Twitch’s Music Guidelines. Part of those guidelines state: You may not include music you do not own in your Twitch streams or VOD’s (Past Broadcasts, Past Premieres, Highlights, Clips and Uploads).

One option for streamers who don’t want to get hit with a DMCA claim is to delete clips that include music that they do not own the rights to. The problem is that Twitch doesn’t make it easy for streamers to delete clips. Streamers who have been streaming for years, and who have active fans, could have a huge amount of clips to dig through. It becomes a race between how fast Twitch’s system allows for deletion, and the rate at which DMCA notices arrive at Twitch.

This could result in some streamers quickly racking up DMCA notices faster than they can do anything about them. Your favorite streamers might end up banned as a result. It seems unfair, considering that Twitch itself didn’t foresee the speed at which the DMCA notices would start arriving.

The best advice I have for streamers is to stop playing music until this whole mess gets sorted out. You might also want to ask your fans to stop making clips.


Ninja Moved to Mixer Due to Contract Issues



Tyler Blevins – known as “Ninja” – left Twitch in favor of streaming exclusively on Mixer in August of 2019. At the time, there was much speculation that the reason was because Mixer was paying him a lot more money than Twitch did. It turns out that is simply not so. The reason Ninja switched has to do with contracts.

Business Insider posted a detailed interview with Jessica Blevins, Ninja’s wife and manager. In it, she states: “Money was the last thing on our mind”. Business Insider notes that the value of Ninja’s deal with Mixer is kept heavily under wraps.

One of the main sticking points with Twitch’s newly proposed contract was that it would limit the licensing deals that Jessica and Tyler had worked so hard to attain in the first place.

In other words, the Twitch contract conflicted with some of Ninja’s current sponsors. Jessica Blevins said: “With the wording of how that contract was going, he wouldn’t have been able to grow his brand much outside of gaming.” Microsoft, however, was willing to work with Ninja, without restricting whatever sponsorships Ninja has (or may have in the future).

In addition, Jessica said that the Ninja chatroom on Twitch had become “pretty toxic”. It apparently was bad enough where it was making Ninja unhappy and less interested in streaming.

Twitch should take a lesson from this. I can see where they might lose more big streamers to Mixer, since Mixer’s contract seems to be less restricting than Twitch’s is. It also sounds like Twitch needs to do more to prevent chatrooms from become so toxic that big streamers no longer want stream there.


Twitch Used Ninja’s Dormant Channel to Promote NSFW Stream



As you may have heard, Tyler Blevins, known as Ninja, has left Twitch and is now streaming exclusively on Mixer. It seems that Twitch is unhappy about that. Engadget reported that Twitch used Ninja’s dormant Twitch channel to promote other streamers, including one that was NSFW (not safe for work).

Engadget reported that esports consultant Rod Breslau observed that the number one stream on Twitch the morning of August 11, 2019, was a bootleg NSFW movie that lasted for more than two hours.

This is a huge problem for many reasons. People who come to Twitch to watch Ninja’s channel are very likely hoping to watch him play Fortnite, a game that is popular with middle schoolers and children. No one wants their kids to watch X-rated material.

The video is reportedly a bootleg, which breaks Twitch’s rule regarding copyrighted content. Twitch should have taken it down as expediently as possible, especially considering the nature of the content. Instead, Twitch left it up for at least two hours.

Ninja posted a video on Twitter in which he apologized for what Twitch promoted on his dormant channel. He also stated that he had absolutely no control over what Twitch chose to promote there. It sounds like Ninja and his team expected that his Twitch channel would be dormant – and not be used by Twitch for promotion.

Personally, I think this was a mean-spirited and extremely immature response by Twitch in regards to Ninja’s decision to move to Mixer. It is obvious that the NSFW content promoted on his Twitch channel could have harmed Ninja’s brand.

According to Engadget, Twitch has since reverted Ninja’s old channel to a regular offline screen, and Twitch CEO Emmett Shear has apologized to Ninja. Twitch has banned the user who posted the NSFW content and is suspending recommendations until they investigate.

I think I would have been willing to believe Twitch’s apology was in good faith if they had stepped in and removed the NSFW stream right away. Waiting two hours to do so is irresponsible, and makes Twitch look bad.


Ninja will Stream Exclusively on Mixer



Tyler Blevins – known as “Ninja” – has left Twitch in favor of Mixer. The announcement was made in a clever (and delightfully cheesy) video that was posted on Ninja’s Twitter account. Ninja was one of Twitch’s biggest streamers.

A press release on Bloomberg provides more details: Gaming superstar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins announced he is teaming up with Microsoft’s interactive live streaming service, Mixer, to stream panels and games exclusively at Mixer. Ninja will kick off his first Mixer stream during Lollapalooza 2019, from August 2 through August 4, at Ninja’s Dojo inside the Red Bull Outpost.

“I never would have thought that I could build a career by doing what I love, and I am extremely grateful for the incredible experiences that I have had. As I look at the next step in my career, achieving bigger goals in the gaming industry with Mixer will allow me to have the perfect balance of opportunities and success. My roots as a gamer started with Halo, so working with Microsoft and coming over to Mixer felt like a natural next step. Capturing all the great moments in gaming and sharing the wins (and losses) with a positive, community-focused environment that we can all be proud of – that’s why I’m here”, said Ninja.

The Verge reported that Mixer is owned by Microsoft. It was originally launched as Beam back in 2016, and was rebranded as Mixer in 2017.

The Verge also reported a statement from Mixer: “We’re thrilled to welcome Ninja and his community to Mixer. Mixer is a place that was formed around being positive and welcoming from day one, and we look forward to the energy Ninja and his community will bring.”

It is definitely an interesting move for Ninja, who has built up a huge following on Twitch. I think that many of his fans will go over to Mixer to watch him stream. Of course, there will be people who complain about his decision. I cannot confirm this, but I suspect that perhaps Mixer is giving Ninja a better financial deal than Twitch did.


Twitch Removes Universal Ad-Free Viewing from Twitch Prime



Twitch recently made changes to the perks that come with Twitch Prime. One controversial change is that universal ad-free viewing will no longer be a part of Twitch Prime for new members. This decision could end up hurting streamers.

As we have continued to add value to Twitch Prime, we have also re-evaluated some of the existing Twitch Prime Benefits. As a result, universal ad-free viewing will no longer be a part of Twitch Prime for new members, starting on September 14.

Twitch Prime members with monthly subscriptions will continue to get ad-free viewing until October 15. If you already have an annual subscription, or if you upgrade to an annual subscription before September 14, you will continue with ad-free viewing until your next renewal date.

All other Twitch Prime benefits, like monthly channel subs, monthly games and loot, and chat badges are not changing.

Twitch provided some explanation for why they made this change: “Advertising is an important source of support for the creators who make Twitch possible. This change will strengthen and expand that advertising opportunity for creators so they can get more support from their viewers for doing what they love.”

Twitch says that an ad-free viewing experience is still possible. One way to get it is to subscribe to Twitch Turbo. Doing so will give you ad-free viewing across all channels.

Twitch also points out that Twitch Prime subscribers can still get channel-specific ad-free viewing as part of Twitch Prime by using their monthly subscription token on a channel that has ad-free viewing for subscribers turned on.

This change could harm streamers. People who cancel their Twitch Prime will lose the free monthly subscription that they could use to support a streamer. It is unclear how much of the revenue from the ads that appear on a stream actually go to the streamer.