Street Fighter pro and founder of Cross Counter TV, Ryan ‘Gootecks’, Gutierrez, finally reacted after Twitch removed his famous PogChamp emote for allegedly ‘encouraging violence’.
On January 6, Gootecks asked his fans on Twitter if there would be “civil unrest for the woman executed in the Capitol” after the controversial events of the day unfolded.
Shortly after making this remark, Twitch felt that Gutierrez was “encouraging further violence” and made the decision to remove the emote, pointing out that they “could not continue to use the image in good conscience. . “
While a temporary solution is underway, with a new PogChamp emote appearing every twenty-four hours, Gootecks does not approve of the way Twitch handles the situation.
We want the sentiment and use of Pog to survive – its significance is far greater than that of the person portrayed or the image itself – and it has a large place in Twitch culture. However, we cannot continue in good conscience to make the image possible.
– Twitch (@Twitch) 7 January 2021
In a new response video uploaded to the YouTube channel Cross Counter TV, the original face of the emote showed interesting inconsistencies between Twitter and Twitch. (Segment starts at 19:00)
He mainly noted how Twitter made the decision to ban the U.S. president’s bill for “encouraging violence,” but not Gootecks’ tweet.
“It’s not like Twitter browsing people’s tweets with a fine comb to determine if they are inciting violence, am I right?” he asks rhetorically. “And I’m not saying I have the kind of reach and influence the president has, but I’m just saying it’s no coincidence that my account was locked into what I posted.”
From this, he pulled up tweets he made, which led to Twitter closing his account, but his tweet about civil unrest was not a culprit, suggesting that it was good by Twitter standards.
“They are looking for people who are trying to incite violence, but that is not what they found in my account,” he said. ‘Then why is it that Twitch seems to have superpowers? Because in less than three hours after I uploaded the video, they decided to remove PogChamp as a global emote. ‘
“You can not make up this stuff,” he concluded, ending his video.
The iconic PogChamp emote has been removed on Twitch.
So far, it does not appear that Twitch intends to re-introduce Gootecks as the face of PogChamp, but they do understand the importance of the emote in the platform’s culture.
In any case, we will have to wait to see what the future holds for the emote in 2021.