Tonight I triggered a 90 second ad break in order to disable prerolls. I was then informed by my guest that my stream was being used to push a crypto.com NFT project.

I cannot, in good conscience, continue to stream on this platform when the content I produce is used to push this. Besides finding the crypto “industry” repugnant, many of my viewers are underage, and would not know better than to buy into a scam. I won’t be the vehicle by which they’re taken advantage of. This is the Twitch “Affiliate” and “Partner” programs, after all - I refuse to be “affiliated” or “partnered” with crypto and NFT’s.

But this isn’t about just crypto. I’ve seen other posts complain about being unable to screen other sorts of ads they find unethical or immoral and don’t want to have on their stream, such as military recruitment or gambling.

It’s not the same as an ad being played before a YouTube video, where viewers can seperate the content of the ad from the content of the video and the content creator. It’s live. I clicked the button that played that ad in real time. It’s being played in between me actively interacting with viewers right then, with my face on the screen, on a channel that has my name attached to it. There’s a sign in the corner of the ad that says to watch it to support my stream. I am effectively endorsing whatever Twitch is advertising, as if I was reading it off a teleprompter myself.

This issue must be addressed broadly. There has to be a system put in place as soon as possible to allow streamers to tailor the ads that appear on their channel.

I’m uncertain on the best way to implement this. I would experiment first with broad categories of ads like “food” or “entertainment/media” that streamers can uncheck if they don’t want them to appear on their stream, and see where that gets us.

This needs to be a priority. Your content may be being used to push an agenda that you despise with your entire being, and there’s currently nothing you can do about it.