Apologies for the crass subject line but this is who the CEO of Twitch (Dan “DJ” Clancy) is at this point (IMNSHO). Also try saying it in the way an airlines captain announces during the beginning of a flight (to add a bit of sarcastic humor to this). I’m honestly already this -> “.” close to self-kicking myself off the platform (previously, a simple deactivation and/or keeping myself busy with things I had let slide was good enough; now, I feel like the time I needed to just leave tech/Silicon Valley on my own volition because of the tech-idiocracy that was forming). I honestly would like to see him be shown out the door first before I self de-platform myself. Digressing, besides his other moves since taking over in 2023, the following two come to mind.
During a recent marathon charity event (GCX Marathon), Clancy was reported to have gone into several channels and asked them to raid into him once they were done streaming. This type of blatant self-promotion has long been frowned upon (it’s not a rule… it’s just common decency and channel etiquette). But here you have Twitch’s CEO going around and spamming this in channels (this spamming part of course is a violation). This however has also been a long running sore point (for me) with executives who firmly believe they have different rules (do as I say, not as I do). It’s why I have this lack of respect for many (a good percentage haven’t earned that sort of respect).
A former Twitch executive even called Clancy out on this while several channel moderators did the right thing and timed Clancy out. Even the GCX co-founder was not too happy about Clancy’s stunt. Myself, I would’ve sent a stern warning first reminding the idiot (I mean CEO) that he is breaching community protocols long established on the platform, then a timeout, then a channel ban for good measure (logged with a note stating that this decision was all mine, and that any retribution should be solely directed at me). Can you tell I am fed up?
Then we have this whole viewbotting thing (where they are implementing changes). This whole thing is in “no shit sherlock” territory. Clancy actually goes and does an interview and claims he “doesn’t know how many viewbots there are on Twitch” (which is a fair statement to make in this game of whack-a-mole). That article has an embedded VOD where this less than 2 minutes conversation about viewbots starts at the 1h10m mark. But he then ventures into the tidbit that “it’s not one big streamer” and goes on to clarify that the streamer may not be complicit before throwing the smaller content creator under the bus and saying it is probably thousands of smaller streamers who can create “thousands” of accounts in order to viewbot so that they can get that ad revenue. Are you kidding me? SERIOUSLY? You mean they are spending all of that time and effort just to make a few PENNIES of ad revenue? Remember, Clancy isn’t just some random opining about this… HE IS THE CEO FOR TWITCH MAKING THIS REMARK. I do not apologize for calling him a DUMBASS.
The following is NOT a secret unless you’ve never ventured into these other parts of the business (where things are not always on the up and up). This viewbotting is often times done by agencies and sponsors (not the streamers themselves) because those big numbers juice things all around for the players in that circle. Mind you, there are “low tech” versions and the more advanced ones that can now be powered by AI chatters that can fake those engagement metrics. A top tier content creator pulling in a million dollars has no problems shelling out 5-figures for that miscellaneous promotional line item that their managing agency has them sign off on as they might not know it is for “services” (like viewbotting) to enhance their overall metrics.
None of this is new territory and pre-dates streaming/long form content creation. Page hits for websites were gamed in this same way. Then that whole internet affiliate marketing thing was another (and still is). Look up “warrior forum affiliate marketing” and you will see how long this game has been running. In Japan, you will come across these sites that are a circle jerk of links that send you on this endless goose chase of that “free” download of gravure photos or image video of that idol (as one example). Some of these sites make bank every month with this charade (it’s why I look at the entire online advertising system as one huge scheme run by many of these big tech companies with Google being one of the largest offenders).
Now for those of us who have crossed over (from the tech side) into doing work on the entertainment side, none of this is a secret either. Like in the book publishing and music industry, there are cottage industries that will buy up copies of books, and in the past when physical releases were common for music, those would also be bought to juice those “sell numbers”. There is always some kind of business that does these sort of things (reviews are another including all of that paid garbage being done by the major trade publications in various industries).
On the streaming side, viewbotting being a problem isn’t a revelation. The issue is it’s the big money doing it for their own benefit and the creators that are being represented where it generates these revenues out of the ether for all involved. Sorry for bursting that bubble, but when power and money is involved, the rules are BENT every which way that it can be bent by those who lack ethical standards. What takes the cake in this interview though is when Clancy tries to not KILL the golden goose (that some of the platforms BIGGEST creators agencies/sponsors might be involved in this charade) by stating that it is mostly smaller streamers that are viewbotting.
Really? You mean the 10-20 viewer streamer trying to hit that 75 CCV mark in order to just get that stupid partner checkmark (that no longer offers the benefits it once granted) are the main problem versus these highly overcompensated contracts for that top 1% where that large viewership juices the payout from advertisement revenue? Seriously? You have to be an idiot to think the real viewbotting issue are the small streamers. But that is your “dumbass Twitch CEO speaking” this out loud.
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