Twitch star Chica teases move to Kick after platform bans seemingly innocent chicken emote
Twitch / Twitch: ChicaMega-popular streamer Chica has jokingly teased a career pivot from Twitch to new upstart Kick after the Amazon-owned platform removed a seemingly innocent chicken emote.
It hasn’t exactly been the smoothest start to 2023 for Twitch. From mass layoffs impacting thousands of employees to a shift at the very top with veteran CEO Emmett Shear resigning after 16 years, the boat has certainly been rocked in recent weeks. In the meantime, surging rival Kick has been gathering momentum, for better or worse, with internet celeb Trainwrecks largely steering the ship.
Now, another Twitch star has teased a departure from the platform amid its struggles, albeit in jest, after having one of their seemingly innocuous emotes banned. While this is nothing new in and of itself, seeing as various emotes are banned for violating the Twitch terms of service more often than not, this particular instance has exploded on social media given the nature of the little chat icon.
Chica’s theme featuring adorable chicken emotes led to the inclusion of one known to her chat as ‘chicaL.’ This emote featured the chicken holding its hand to its head in the shape of an ‘L’. This alone was enough to be blocked on the platform for “targeted insults, bullying, and threatening or inciting abuse.”
Sharing the news with her audience on Twitter, Chica simply posted the decision from Twitch with an accompanying link to Kick. It just so happens she’s already secured a verified account on the platform in the event she did make the jump, though it appears unlikely given this post was made in jest.
Dozens of fans chimed in below in disbelief that this seemingly innocent emote was removed from the platform for the reasons listed above. “What is happening over here?” one fellow personality asked. “Ain’t no way,” another added. “What is Twitch even doing anymore?”
“That’s actually so ridiculous,” LuluLuvely replied. “For what?” Anne Munition questioned. Meanwhile, a number of other streamers on the platform explained how a similar crackdown on emotes has also impacted them.
“Same,” FaZe star Kalei said. “They took mine too,” dakotaz also revealed. “I think they’re removing any emotes with single letters because people would use them to write bad stuff. I had my ‘F’ emote removed too,” Natarsha explained.
Among those responding to the news was none other than Trainwrecks himself, adding to the discussion with a set of laughing emojis and nothing more.
With Twitch currently facing mass layoffs, it’s unlikely we’ll hear on this issue anytime soon.Naturally, Twitch is yet to respond to the backlash and provide further clarity on the widespread emote removal. Given the platform historically remains silent at times like this, it’d be wise not to hold your breath in waiting to hear more. Though in the event further details emerge, we’ll be sure to update you here with all the latest.