‘I’m not sure what’s going to happen’

American Twitch 
Date: Feb 5, 2018
By: Julia Alexander

When popular Taiwan-based American Twitch caster CJayride streamed himself hanging out in a hot tub with friends at a local hotel in Taiwan, he didn’t expect it to result in days of targeted harassment on Facebook, doxing, two Twitch bans and criticism from national Taiwanese media.

IRL, or “in real life,” broadcasts — a newer type of Twitch stream that features people performing ordinary activities or talking to viewers over chat, rather than playing games — have become problematic for Twitch in the past year as streamers push boundaries with their behavior. The company is looking into ways to figure out how to determine what is acceptable for a broadcast and what isn’t. IRL broadcasts exist in a gray area for Twitch as the company tries to smooth out its guidelines, and that factors into CJayride’s case.

On Jan. 7, CJayride, whose real name is Chris James Robb, hosted an IRL stream from the aforementioned hotel hot tub with two male and two female friends. The video can be seen below. Over the course of their time in the hot tub, the chat started filling up with people using the “EZ” BTTV emote. This emote, best described as a version of “Pepe the Frog in a trenchcoat,” can only be seen by people with the BTTV browser extension installed. People without the extension will only see the letters “EZ” in the chat.

This is where Robb’s troubles began. Taiwanese viewers saw the letters and began spreading a message that Robb was calling Taiwanese girls “easy,” according to Robb, who spoke to Polygon via Skype.    [FULL  STORY]