On October 6, crucial information regarding Twitch leaked onto message board 4chan, a site famous for suspect content. In this instance, the poster dumped 128 gigabytes of data harvested from the livestreaming service, including a full breakdown of income from the site dating back to August 2019. Twitch confirmed that this leak was, in fact, legitimate, and a tweet detailing the income of the platform’s top 100 streamers has gone viral on social media platforms such as Twitter.
While this new information caused many fans to look at their favorite content creators differently, it was arguably far from the most notable thing revealed by the Twitch data leak. New Steam competitors, a secret “no-ban” list, and a massive lack of diversity among top streamers were all also revealed by the leak. It’s not really a surprise that channels like Critical Role and xQc are making millions of dollars through Twitch, but these other revelations shed an interesting light on the platform’s issues as a whole.
How and Why Twitch Was Hacked
Twitch, which is the world’s largest livestreaming platform, had 128GB of its most essential data leaked thanks to what should have been a really routine server change. According to the platform, the Twitch leak was due to a server configuration, which left its GitHub source code vulnerable and ripe for the plucking by a 4chan hacker. During that time, the hacker took the platform’s base code, user information, income reports, and financial information dating back to the time the site was called “Justin.tv”.
Perhaps more interestingly is why the Twitch hack was done in the first place. The hacker themselves stated that this was a move to disrupt the monopoly that Twitch had on the gaming livestream industry. Furthermore, the perpetrator argued that Twitch had an especially toxic atmosphere, as per the 4chan post leaking the data. While this could well be the case, and Twitch’s recent hate raids do lend credence to the argument, perhaps leaking a bunch of user data was not the way to go about finding justice.
Other Twitch Products Got Leaked Too
Twitch Has an Earnings Disparity Problem
One of the most controversial elements of the Twitch leak was related to the income leaks, but it wasn’t just about the gross salaries. Looking at the list of the top 100 highest-paid streamers, one weird fact comes to light. The first non-male on the list, Pokimane, sits at number 39 and makes several million less than the highest-paid male on the list, xQc. The top 100 list makes the disparity between marginalized streamers all the more obvious. Twitch’s problem with hate raids speaks to a much more toxic community in general, and the fact that people of color and LGBTQ+ people are not as prominent on the platform seems to corroborate that.
Perhaps what is needed is for Twitch to promote marginalized groups much more heavily on the platform’s front page. When there are so many queer TTRPG streams and diverse content creators that want a larger audience, it really makes sense to put them front and center. After all, really big streamers like xQc and Critical Role are not exactly hard to find.
