Twitch Apologises for Content Deletion

Twitch has apologised for the recent issues that forced many high-profile streamers to delete thousands of hours worth of their video content. The company recently took a hard line with DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) claims protecting access to any creative work without due payment.

Poker players were hit particularly hard as most enjoy playing background music while they are grinding. Almost every video of saved content featured copyrighted music forcing a complete deletion of their back catalogues.

At the time, Twitch said:

"If you are unsure about the contents of your archive you can delete all of it."

Apology

The following statement was necessary, but still does little to help the situation beyond making any future expectations clear. 

Your frustration and confusion with recent music-related copyright issues is completely justified. Things can–and should–be better for creators than they have been recently. The next few tweets will outline our plan for being better partners to creators. 

We shouldn’t blame Twitch because the new situation has been forced upon them without any warning. Only as far back as May 2020 the rate of DMCA claims was in the region of 50 per year. This quickly escalated to thousands per week.

Obviously something had to be done to prevent a tsunami of legal action coming their way.

Popular streamer Kevin Martin spoke to PokerNews to give his thoughts.

"It’s sad watching content creators remove thousands of hours of good footage out of fear of a strike. The copyright strike isn’t fun, to think the platform I make a living on might be in danger it's terrifying."

Twitch also encouraged streamers to no longer play any recorded music during a stream and to read their updated blog explaining more in-depth about how to avoid any issues moving forward.

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