Edited to fix a lot of awful grammar/wording/sentence structures (not that most of my posts are any better, but this one was really terrible).
The two companies came to a “memorandum of understanding” and deal that allows Twitch to escape the ad boycott lawsuit that Elon Musk filed after many companies began boycotting X (once he acquired it and began posting disinformation along with unbanning and re-platforming Nazi extremists).
This entire antitrust lawsuit is premised on X alleging that the (WFA) World Federation of Advertisers (a group which sets brand safety standards that advertisers could use to ensure that companies who did not want their ads to be associated with certain content, would have a system to ensure this would not happen), conspired/colluded with these companies by directing them to boycott X as a means of doing damage to X’s ability to generate ad revenue. The WFA itself is not mandatory, it could be joined voluntarily; it simply serves as an advisory group.
Twitch was not part of the original lawsuit; X sued them separately once they noticed that Twitch had referenced the WFA brand safety guidelines in their own terms of service/community guidelines. Note that the article does not make it clear what the actual settlement with X was. The only specifics mentioned was the WFA disbanding the group initiative known as Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM set those brand safety standards) in the summer of 2024.
Regardless, this is just another in a long line of individuals, organizations, companies, universities, etc caving versus fighting. Companies like Apple, IBM, Microsoft went back to re-advertising on X again because they were also part of this lawsuit. Part of this case seems ridiculous because even without being part of the WFA, companies that do not want their brand to be associated with a site that was re-platforming Nazi’s post-Musk purchase, would make the same decision regardless of the advice of an outside advisory group (where they would stop advertising out of principle).
If these companies knew they were not involved in a conspiracy against X (to deny of it of ad revenue by being directed specifically by WFA to boycott advertising on X), they should have seen it through in this case (sure, the negative is the legal fees being incurred which also seems to be the point of this lawsuit) because no company should also be forced to advertise on a platform which they don’t want to. However, because of Musk’s power in his advisory role to the convicted felon president, many of these folks are simply bending the knee. Bezo’s as chairman of Amazon, did that quite early on with the Washington Post (thus no surprise of this capitulation so as to keep all of the associated brands/subsidiaries in line). Thus my further hardened stance in boycotting Amazon, Twitch, and every other associated subsidiary.
Which brings me to something I needed to coredump/stream of conscious type out. Completely boycotting the Twitch part has been a challenge because I am also a moderator of two Twitch channels (which is what is keeping me from just wholesale deactivating right now). It’s something I’ve enjoyed doing. Both streamers multistream to YouTube Live (the bulk of the viewership and chat engagement is on Twitch though) and because the chat engagement on YouTube is miniscule, it’s much easier to “tune out” because for the most part, the low activity makes it feel like you aren’t dealing with an actual community (which is a core strength of Twitch chat). But YouTube is similarly an issue (the Google part which I am also extricating myself from as that also involves this blogging platform). While I feel I can contribute a bit more to both streamers in terms of ideas, both are also on good enough footing to do what they need to do without further input from me.
Since February, I have reduced my time on Twitch by nearly 75%. In 2024 (when I reactivated in January), I spent an incredible amount of hours on it; the 2024 recap was 5.5K watch hours though over 1.7K of that was AFK lurking several channels. There was also that time outside of actual viewing where it was supporting streamer goals (feedback, ideas, tips). With that said, part of the objective in spending less time on the platform has been this process of easing myself away from the continuous channel/community engagement (I used a similar sort of process to detach myself from gaming communities in the past).
Finally (in regards to disengaging from Twitch), while there is a fun, enjoyable, and relaxing element with that engagement, I’ve been feeling non-productive especially when taking into consideration what is going on geopolitically where I know I need to re-prioritize/dedicate more time and effort on those things. I know this isn’t happy talk. I also know that “sticking ones head in the sand” and staying silent isn’t an option. If it weren’t 5-alarm fire territory, I’d be fine with continuing to vegetate in front of the screen and engaging in that online community. In hindsight, 2024 was peak carefree freedom and I wished this was still the case. Since January 20, 2025 though, it’s been watching this country being dismantled (knowing this will also have more far reaching impacts), where I can’t just be sitting around watching IRL streams for hours on end.
