Fret Not, Streamers: You Will Survive Logan Paul

Many fear over the impact one of YouTube’s worst might have on Twitch. I’m here to tell you all will be well…

Over the last day or so, you’ve likely been privy to the massive collective groan let out by the massive streaming community in response to the news that YouTube’s most notorious irritant. Logan Paul, would begin streaming Fortnite through his brand new Twitch channel, which sported over 100,000 followers before its first broadcast.

Paul has made such a name for himself as an all-around drain on society at large that his most recent antics actually got him called out by traditional news outlets, and resulted in a temporary (unfortunately) demonetization of his YouTube channel. That disdain largely carries over into the communities reaction to the notion of him streaming on Twitch, with many simply resenting the notion of, even digitally, sharing a space with a community and creator for which they have such an active dislike. But, underneath the anger and resentment, there’s also a level of fear over how he can impact the platform at large.

It’s no secret that YouTube is going through a substantial identity crisis, at the moment. Paul’s gross cultural misstep in Japan was just the latest in a long string of individual videos and trending ‘genres’ that seemed to be drifting away from quality content and more towards lowest-common-denominator, minimal effort, often problematic videos. And that’s before getting into the current issues of widespread misinformation and hidden inappropriate content. For many, Paul’s public reckoning is seen as a turning point, a moment where YouTube doubled down on its trend of protecting itself and its advertisers from the creators that populate their platform. Demonetization has run rampant, and YouTubers are struggling.

In that context, it’s easy to see why streamers might be nervous. Twitch has had its own struggles with moderation. The amount of video streaming on the site at any given time is obscene, and monitoring it for inappropriate or damaging content is an equally enormous endeavor, likely even more so than for YouTube. The mind immediately begins conjuring scenarios wherein Paul attracts similar negative attention, makes Twitch’s advertisers nervous in much the same way he did previously, and suddenly everyone on the platform is suffering for his misdeeds. At first thought, it seems all too plausible.

And, look. I get it. I’ve made no secret of my general dislike for Paul and his ilk. In the past, I’ve even pointed out that a moment like Paul’s screw-up in Japan could happen on Twitch, and creators needed to be prepared. But, personally, I think the the negative reaction to this announcement is overblown. Streamers are more protected from people like Logan Paul than YouTubers ever were, for a few reasons.

Firstly, each platform’s relationships with its advertisers is different in important ways. Advertisers are the fuel that power YouTube from top to bottom. In recent years, the platform as ventured out into other money-making endeavors, things like YouTube Red and YouTubeTV, but, in general, YouTube uses ad revenue, from any number of different business sectors, to balance the budget, and that budget is way, way out of whack. YouTube has never been profitable for Google, and that was before advertisers were taking breaks from the platform every time the news covered a creator’s public misbehavior. Doesn’t Twitch also feature advertisements? Of course. But, they also have subscriptions. It used to be they were just for Partners, but now they’ve also added affiliates. They also added different levels of subscription, bits, cheers, and look to monetize their Extensions platform as well, not to mention the growing extravaganza that is TwitchCon. The point? Losing advertisers doesn’t pose quite the existential threat it would otherwise. Additionally, as Twitch grew as a gaming platform first, their advertisers are less diverse, and a bit more intentional. They’re less prone to be frightened away, because they better understand what Twitch is, and don’t need to worry about being misunderstood through association.

But what about the toxicity, you might be asking? Before Paul’s even launched his first stream, the community and chat around it is already active, and it wasn’t long before others were capturing images of racism or harassment in the chat. It’s true that Paul’s community has about as bad a reputation as he does, and while Twitch is no stranger to toxic communities of its own, the idea of someone coming into the platform after already being known to facilitate negative interactions seems particularly unsettling when Twitch is, just now, rolling out new community guidelines to crack down on that very sort of behavior.

But, each Twitch community is very much its own animal. I fail to see why Paul’s followers have to have any real impact on someone else’s channel. The platform has never been a monolith; it’s always been a strange, multi-faceted beast, a place where you can build a community out of a shared love of fitness or emotional wellness, or, just as easily, out of crushing your enemies and having your fans sing your praises. Paul doesn’t have the power to unmake that.

What’s more, what Paul does have is a sizeable audience that might not have checked out streaming before. As Summit1g tweeted, “The amount of [people] he can bring over from YouTube can only be a good thing for the site and has potential of some of those [people]staying and lurking other channels.” It’s true that Paul’s audience, too, is not a monolith. No audience of that size is. And, to other creators, instead of a threat, they can represent an opportunity. This is over 100,000 sets of eyeballs, many of whom have never seen Twitch content before. If they like it, or love it, they’ll stick around, find other creators, participate in other communities. That can only be a good thing for everyone else.

So, as a streamer, should you be nervous about Logan Paul stepping into your territory? I don’t think so. At least not any more than you should have been before he showed up. It was already important to protect yourself from the damage other creators can do to your platform, but Paul doesn’t really change anything in that regard. Really, at worst, he should just be another creator on the platform whose content isn’t for you. Keep your eyes open for trouble? Sure. But you need not fear Logan Paul.

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