“How about you lick my eardrum”: xQc responds to Pokimane’s stance over ASMR content on Twitch

During a recent live stream, Felix “xQc” Lengyel responded to Imane “Pokimane” Anys’ take on the recent ASMR controversy on Twitch.

The “sexually-suggestive ASMR” meta on Twitch has taken off after “hot-tub” streams fizzled out in popularity. Streamers such as Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa and Janelle “Indiefoxx” Dagres have recently shifted to the new meta. The streamers were banned after hosting multiple suggestive streams in which they offered services such as “licking their microphones” and writing donors/subscribers names on their bodies.

Both were suspended on June 19th 2021 and were unbanned after around three days. In a recent live stream, Pokimane spoke about the entire controversy and appeared to blame Twitch for not having a mechanism for categorizing “sexually-suggestive” streams.

Pokimane also said that the new meta is affecting actual “ASMR streamers” who put in a lot of effort and dedication into their content. When xQc saw her lengthy rant, he responded by sarcastically explaining how most Twitch viewers have approached the new ASMR meta.

xQc responds sarcastically to Pokimane’s stance on the recent ASMR meta on Twitch

Pokimane referenced her own ASMR streams of the past, and said that she stopped doing the streams because she noticed how much “effort and dedication” it takes. Pokimane said that “hot-tub” streams in particular were not the problem. Instead, she feels it is Twitch’s inability to properly categorize “sexually-suggestive” material that has led to the current situation.

It must be noted that Pokimane herself had hosted a “wholesome” hot-tub stream along with her Offline TV buddies, effectively proving that the entire category need not be seen as “sexually-suggestive.” The streamer has the same approach towards the new ASMR meta.

Additionally, Twitch also appears to have tried to implement a similar approach. The platform has not identified any category or meta (hot-tub or ASMR) as sexually-suggestive and is attempting to judge individual streams. However, it is the “non-uniform” way in which it has applied its rules and TOS which appears to be the real problem.

Both Amouranth and Indieefoxx were able to return to the platform after just three days despite other streamers previously getting longer suspensions for obviously lesser violations. For more information about the controversy, the following article can be read.

Regardless, Pokimane said the following about the controversy:

“Twitch basically implemented a bandaid fix as opposed to treating the root cause. It’s not about the symptoms. It’s the root cause which is your TOS (Terms of Service) and your lack of content organization and labeling. You just need to give your mods and admins powers to basically label certain channels as sexually suggestive. If a stream is labeled as sexually suggestive, and it’s something that you don’t want to ban from the platform, you also don’t want to incentivize. Channels like that just shouldn’t be shown in the discovery feed or certain categories. So only the specific followers of that channel can see it, but random kids on the website can’t.”

Towards the end, the streamer explained that Twitch’s approach is hurting “legit ASMR” streamers. Regardless, xQc explained the situation in characteristically sarcastic fashion:

“Ohh you are making a really cool interesting sound that helps a lot of people and is really interesting and innovating? Nah, stop right there. How about you lick my ear-drum with your tongue and then you put you’re a****le right next to my ear and fart direct into my ear-canal please?”

As can be seen in the video, xQc mocked Twitch viewers who have been watching the recent ASMR streams. He appeared to partly blame viewers who are ignoring “legitimate” ASMR streamers and instead watching “sexually-suggestive” ASMR streams that have been posted by creators such as Amouranth and Indiefoxx.

Of course, at the end of the day, only the platform can change the situation. Listening to Pokimane’s suggestions might as well end up solving part of the problem.