Streamers Are Furious Over This Phony Twitch Emote

Twitch can be an avenue for streamers to show their generosity. For example, streamers like MrBeast have used Twitch for giveaways and to treat fans to exciting games with ludicrous prizes. However, Twitch can be a dark and shady place as well, with some people attempting to take advantage of each other in the name of views. One streamer recently angered the community by "pranking" streamers in need with fake donations, causing an uproar in the process.

Redvines created an animated emote that looked like "bits," the virtual currency of Twitch. He then used the emote on streamers while they were broadcasting, tricking them into thinking they were receiving money from viewers. Redvines posted an example of the prank in action on his Instagram account, sharing a clip in which he made FaZe Mew believe he wass receiving $500 in donations. Mew's chat congratulated him, then unfortunately had to tell him the money was fake.

While more famous streamers might not mind a little deception in the name of entertainment, lesser-known streamers in need of financial support from viewers could be heartbroken to learn the money isn't real. Unfortunately, people have begun using a similar prank on smaller streamers.

Emmagination is a streamer who has felt the sting of the phony bits emote. On her Twitter account, Emmagination posted a screenshot of the emote in action and said, "I was just telling my community how I am in risk of ending up homeless after my divorce because of my government's inability to support disabled people and then this happened in my chat (those are animated emotes, by the way, NOT bits)." 

A Twitch user had used Redvines' animated bits emote to make it appear as if Emmagination had received massive donations. Instead of seeing a way out of her tense financial situation, Emmagination ended up crestfallen that the money wasn't real. The comments below Emmaginations post was filled with other streamers and Twitch affiliates sharing their support and frustration.

Redvines responded to Emmagination's situation by tweeting, "My goal wasn't to troll unemployed twitch streamers. It was to troll bigger streamers that would find it funny (like they all did). I didn't even consider the possibility of it being used to troll people in need so for that I am sorry." Redvines clarified that the animated emote used against Emmagination wasn't precisely the same as the one he created, and that he can't be held responsible for what others do.

Even though Redvines claimed no responsibility for others' actions, he did tell his viewers to clip streamer reactions if they used the emotes to troll others. Redvines even said he might combine the best clips into a longer video.

Ultimately, Redvines' bits emote was removed from Twitch. Redvines did not specify whether the decision was his or the platform's.