Twitch removes PogChamp emote after Capitol Hill violence controversy - Polygon

Pogchamp, one of gaming culture’s most prominent faces, has been removed from livestreaming service Twitch, the company announced. The decision was taken in light of its real-world face, fighting game personality Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, who utilized social media to, in Twitch’s words, encourage “further violence after what took place in the Capitol today.”

Following a violent takeover of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters — and calls to impeach from major political figures — Gutierrez asked his followers to continue the “civil unrest” that unfolded throughout Jan. 6. The personality invoked the name of a woman who died during the Trump supporter takeover, encouraging his followers to watch a video about her passing.

In short order, many top gaming personalities announced that they were either banning the wide-eyed emote from their channels, if not asking the platform itself, Twitch, to take action against it.

At 9 p.m. Wednesday night, the San Francisco-based company did exactly that. Users can no longer use the emote on the service. Polygon has reached out to Twitch for comment, and a representative pointed to the remarks made on Twitter. According to Twitch tracking service StreamElements, PogChamp was the fifth most-used expression on the livestreaming site. Acknowledging that legacy, the company said while PogChamp is a huge part of Twitch culture, the platform cannot in good conscience “enable the use of the image.” Twitch added that it would be working with the community to design something to replace the former PogChamp emote with something equally as “hype.”

We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself– and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can't in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.

— Twitch (@Twitch) January 7, 2021

Twitch’s community guidelines prohibit violence, including using platforms outside of the livestreaming service to encourage it. In late 2020, Twitch updated its harassment guidelines to ban the Confederate Flag, along with some other tweaks concerning politics on the service.

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