Gothalion says Twitch CEO plans to disable autoplay on streamers who abuse embeds
Twitch: KingGothalionGothalion read an email he supposedly received from Twitch CEO Dan Clancy asking him for a shortlist of people taking advantage of stream embed features amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Fextralife.
Prominent gaming site Fextralife has been the subject of scrutiny over the past couple of years for engaging in a controversial practice regarding its Twitch streams.
Although the site’s Twitch channel boasts over 1.6 million followers, many viewers have noticed that the amount of chatter going on in their streams doesn’t exactly match up with the amount of viewership these broadcasts seem to have.
This issue first came to the forefront in 2021, when YouTube star Ludwig accused the site of “stealing views” by embedding streams on their game wikis.
In doing so, Fextralife’s Twitch channel could receive an abundance of views from people browsing their wikis without actively watching the channel.
The issue arose once again with the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023, causing an outpouring of outrage against the site for so-called “shady practices” regarding its streams.
Now, it looks like Twitch might finally be taking action against streamers who abuse embedded content, as told by streaming star Gothalion in an October 2 broadcast.
KingGothalion reveals Twitch CEO’s plan to disable autoplay for streamers who abuse embeds
During his stream, Gothalion read out an email he claimed to have received from Twitch CEO Dan Clancy asking him for a shortlist of offenders who use embedded streams to increase their viewership.
“We were talking about embeds some more and we were looking at ways we could solve it without having the downside impact,” Gothalion read. “There was an idea that I floated with Ko that we discussed and had a question [for] you. The idea is to do something quick by identifying a list of websites that are the worst offenders and prevent autoplay on these websites.”
Clancy claimed this will just be a “quick and dirty” solution while they continue to work out a “better, long-term” plan of attack.
“My understanding is that there is a short list of worst offenders starting with Fextralife. Can you rattle off the worst offenders right now? I have a data team trying to detect the worst of these and it’s good to have a shortlist of the worst offenders.”
This is welcome news for many in the Twitch community, who feel as though such autoplay embeds can actually harm streamers who are putting out thoughtful, high-effort content by promoting bigger streams who are gaining views from embeds.
“Twitch is finally taking notice,” Gothalion later followed up on Twitter. “Change is coming.”
“The small circle of folks who use embeds to fluff their numbers should get prepared.”
