As the Amazon-owned platform continues to tighten down on possible emote abuse, Twitch streamer Loserfruit is the latest to have one of her emotes banned.
In recent months, the site has banned a large number of Twitch streamers’ unique specialty emotes, and a pattern is starting to emerge. In March, “Chica” had her innocent-looking chicken emote taken down from the website because it included a cartoon critter holding up a “L” sign. Loserfruit, who had an emote of a cartoon version of herself holding up the same “L,” has now suffered a same fate, and the streamer seemed concerned that her username would be the next to go.
Loserfruit explained why her emoticon had been taken off in a post on Twitter that also included a screenshot from Twitch. The “fruitLoser” emote was forbidden, according to Twitch, since it might lead to “targeted insults, bullying, and threatening or inciting abuse.” The Australian Twitch celebrity wondered when they would come after his username.
Many people supported the emoticon in the comments, pointing out that anyone can simply enter someone else’s chat and spam “L.” Another person said, “Bruh, that’s literally just an emote of you.”
A former Twitch employee gave an explanation of the removal of emotes before the end of last month, saying that the platform will evaluate emotes in light of potential abuse by viewers. Despite this, users have made compelling arguments that, when used improperly, the letter L generally has the same impact as an emote, but Twitch hasn’t blocked it from chats. Users who are dissatisfied with Twitch’s rigorous regulation have a wide range of alternatives to pick from, like Kick, which gives streamers more flexibility to post whatever they want.
