Twitch has come under fire from fans and creators after one of its end-of-year posts called the platform’s many VTubers “Artificial Intelligence.” VTubers are among the fastest growing content creators on the internet, and the genre experienced a huge boom in 2020.
The popular VTuber of twitch Ironmouse became the platform’s most-subscribed female streamer for a time earlier this year, while news agencies VTubers What hololive and Nijisanji have become synonymous with the genre.
Although the rise of VTuber has led many individual content creators to massive success, large companies have also caught on to the growing trend. Sega’s mascot Sonic made his debut as a VTuber late last year, and other big companies including Disney, Crunchyroll, and Netflix jumped on the bandwagon.
Given the twitch is one of the main platforms for many VTubersthe company intended to highlight many of its top virtual talents as the site wrapped up in 2022. However, the wording of its announcement has drawn significant backlash from fans and creators alike.
In a post highlighting some of Twitch’s best VTubers, the company referred to virtual content creators as “growing and creating AI like never before,” and many VTubers on the site criticized the statement.
Several popular creators, including Vienna and Tomathin, director of VShojo, spoke out against the wording of Twitch’s statement, considering the post misrepresents the image of VTubers, as the genre is not related to AI. The Twitch video featured several of the most popular VTubers on the platform, including Nyanners, Silvervale, and CodeMiko, among others.
