Pokimane Fans Just Got The Worst News

Things have been pretty intense over on Twitch this week. While the streaming platform got itself a huge viewership boost from AOC's Among Us stream, Twitch has also received significant backlash for forcing streamers into a corner over DMCA warnings. Now, some of Twitch's highest performers are scrambling to figure out what to do next. This includes Pokimane, who recently delivered some majorly disappointing news to her fans.

First, a bit of background. Twitch sent out an email in recent days that told streamers some of their videos would be deleted without any kind of appeal process. This was seemingly done in an effort to keep some of its top performers from receiving further DMCA notices that would result in their channels being shut down. Twitch did this without giving any of said streamers specific reasons for the email, or how exactly they had violated Twitch's terms. To put it lightly, a lot of Twitch's top performers were not happy with this approach.

According to a report from Dexerto, streamers were furious over having their content being either deleted or hit with a takedown notice, all without any kind of explanation. Some of these streamers remarked that it would be much easier for them to police their own content if they had any clear idea of what they had done wrong. Instead, streamers were simply logging in to find multiple VODs missing from their channels and an email from Twitch that essentially said, "We took care of it this time, but watch yourself."

That's hardly an exaggeration, either. Twitch streamer Devin Nash posted a screenshot of the email sent from Twitch. The email urged streamers to check through their old VODs for any "unlicensed copyrighted material" and included the sentence, "If you are unsure about the contents of your archive you can delete all of it." The best guess many streamers have is that the presence of copyrighted music is the cause of most of these deletions. Rather than go through each video with a magnifying glass, many streamers are opting to simply delete the entirety of their archives.

Now much of Pokimane's older content could meet the same fate — at least, according to Pokimane, who seemed to indicate things were heading in that direction.

While Pokimane was streaming a game of Among Us, some of her viewers seemingly brought up the continuing DMCA takedown controversy. In particular, one viewer brought up the fact that fellow streamer Lirik is planning to delete all of his old VODs. This is clearly not something that Lirik is looking forward to, either. On Oct. 22, Lirik tweeted, "Mentally preparing to delete almost 9 years of twitch VODs."

However, Pokimane seemed to have a much more relaxed approach to the whole thing. While the development clearly bummed her out, Pokimane's response was a little more chill. "Lirik's going to delete his VODs? Well, guess what, it's not just Lirik," she said to her viewers. "Today, tomorrow, at some point, you guys are going to come across my channel and there's going to be zero content. Sucks to say, but it is what it is."

It is unclear if Pokimane herself received one of the dreaded emails from Twitch. It could be that Pokimane's plan to remove all of her old VODs could simply be a preemptive measure. By taking all of her old videos down herself, she could possibly save herself a good deal of hassle in the future when DMCA strikes resume. It should be noted that she didn't appear to be listening to ANY music during her latest livestream.

Luckily, some Twitch streamers are finding alternative ways of keeping their older content alive. For instance, Lirik has stated that his producer is helping him to back up his old VODs on YouTube. It is unclear whether or not Lirik will be keeping all of these videos or just a curated collection of them. However, his fans are likely to be pleased to know that there will be a way to revisit some of their favorite Lirik moments from over the years. Hopefully more Twitch streamers, including Pokimane, will follow suit.

To help streamers in this daunting process, Twitch founder Justin Ignacio has shared a few third-party websites and tools that can copy their old content. Ignacio is no longer with the company, but it seems he still wants to help out the streamers that call Twitch their home.

As far as Pokimane is concerned, her phrasing doesn't leave too much hope that she intends to back up her old videos. This is undoubtedly rough news for her fans, and shows how overwhelmed much of the Twitch community has been by this latest debacle.