Twitch has removed the popular PogChamp emoticon from its streaming platform, following comments from the emot star about the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol last night. The announcement came just hours after the face of PogChamp, the personality of fighting game Ryan “Gootecks” Gutiérrez, made inflammatory statements about the riots on social media, “encouraging violence.”
“We cannot, with good conscience, continue to enable the use of the image,” “Twitch said.”.
Last night, the U.S. Capitol was violently assaulted by Trump supporters spurred on by unfounded allegations of fraud by the president’s voters. Guitierrez called for “civil unrest” for one of the riot police who was shot dead inside the Capitol building, encouraging fans to watch a “horrible” video about his death.
“We have made the decision to withdraw the PogChamp emot after emot statements encouraging violence after what took place today at the Capitol,” Twitch announced.
PogChamp was an image of Gutierrez’s face in a kind of shocking expression, and was one of Twitch’s most popular emoticons. The phrases that came out of it, “pog” and “poggers,” have not only become a huge part of Twitch culture, but of game culture in general.
“We want the feeling and use of Pog to live on,” Twitch added. “Its meaning is much greater than the person represented or the image itself, and it has a big place in the Twitch culture. However, we cannot continue with a good conscience to allow the use of the image.”
Twitch said they will work with the community “to design a new emotive for Twitch’s most advertising moments.” Your Twitter thread it’s already full of streamers big and small presenting suggestions.