On January 6, 2021, President Trump supporters unleashed a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol building, in protest of President-elect Joe Biden's victory, arguing that he had won by fraudulent means — a claim that has no basis in reality. Later that day, fighting game personality Ryan ‘Gootecks' Gutierrez tweeted controversial remarks in regards to the attacks that seemed to encourage more violence, leading Twitch to remove the famous “PogChamp” emote of his face from the platform, which you can see below.
“PogChamp” emote
Following the terrorist attacks on the United States Capitol building, Gutierrez tweeted “will there be civil unrest for the woman who was executed inside the Capitol today or will the #MAGAMartyr die in vain?” which seems to add fuel to the fire, encouraging more violence. In response to this, Twitch took to Twitter, announcing “we've made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today.”
Twitch then added that it couldn't “in good conscience” continue allowing the emote to be used, after Gutierrez's statement.
We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself– and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can't in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.
— Twitch (@Twitch) January 7, 2021
It was then revealed that Twitch will be “working with the community” to come up with a replacement emote, though it's unclear what that may be.
We will work with the community to design a new emote for the most hype moments on Twitch.
— Twitch (@Twitch) January 7, 2021
Across social media, many responded with their own ideas and renditions of the PogChamps emote, as depicted by other video game characters or respected members of the community. One idea from Twitter user Sean Plott (@day9tv) is for Twitch to feature a database with the faces of respected streamers, and to display one of them at random when using the emote, offering a diverse array of personalities available. The suggestion has already reached over 71,000 likes on Twitter.
Yo @Twitch suggestion for PogChamp: create a database of streamer and/or general faces. Whenever someone types PogChamp, display one of those faces at random. Would give a really nice crowd feel to a chat spamming PogChamp and allow the meaning to be tied to all of us instead.
— Sean Plott (@day9tv) January 7, 2021
It's certainly a step in the right direction to see Twitch move so quickly to address the issue by removing the PogChamps emote. While the video game industry has a long way to go in terms of being more inclusive and kind, it's up to Twitch (and other platforms) to start pushing towards diversity and inclusivity, and to ban any encouragement of hate and violence — much like what Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo vowed to do at the end of 2020.
