Last week, Twitch removed the PogChamp emote after PogChamp face Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez tweeted his support for the rebels who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Shortly thereafter, suggestions for an alternative emote to PogChamp began to come in, suggesting that the PogChamp emote should cycle through various streamers with iconic faces

, and that the PogChamp emote should be a "PogChamp" emote, with a "PogChamp" emote as a "PogChamp" emote

.

The next day, Twitch adopted a modified version of Plot's idea and announced that every 24 hours a new streaming personality would take on the role of PogChamp. This seemed like a good plan: it was a chance for Twitch to showcase the diversity of its streamers, and if any of them said or did anything that would negatively change the meaning of the emote, they could be quickly ejected. This plan did not take into account the reaction of some Twitch viewers, and as a result, has not worked at all.

For some streamers, like Reversal, who served as PogChamp on January 10, it was basically a good thing. He told Polygon that he experienced "a little bit of vandalism," but overall it was clearly a positive experience. For Omega Jones, also known as Critical Bird, however, it was a very different story. Jones was initially very enthusiastic about the PogChamp opportunity, but was prepared for the expected reaction: "Being a black man trying to become the face of Twitch's long-time favorite global emote, I knew what was probably going to happen, and I knew that Twitch and Discord's I prepped the moderators," he told the site.

Despite this, the intensity of the backlash surprised him.

"I expected the typical hatred and racism because anytime a black person is at the forefront of Twitch, there is a backlash. What I personally did not expect was the twisting of words to fit their agenda or the sudden general assault on me, my socials, and most of all my personality," Jones told me in an email. From doxing and hacking attempts to death threats, it was more than necessary."

The "twisting of words" refers to a clip of Jones playing "Overwatch" that has been shared in some parts of the Internet. However, the clip was edited to remove context and was cut off shortly thereafter; the full clip has been changed.

"You can be proud to be Italian or proud to be Scottish. You can't be proud to be white. That's not true," Jones continues. On the flip side, black people must say, "Black lives matter." All we know is that we are black."

The inane accusation of "reverse racism" spurred a reaction against him that did not positively understand the social origins of the race Jones meant to address. Jones contacted his Twitch contact when the abuse first began, but was unable to provide more information immediately because "by that time, it had gotten so bad." He submitted feedback about his experience a day later, but as of this writing, he had still not received any further response from Twitch: "I don't know what they are going to do, and if there was any discussion, I haven't heard anything."

He has ideas about what Twitch could do to improve the platform for marginalized streamers.

"This isn't the first time people have stood up against marginalized creators on Twitch, and unfortunately it won't be the last. They should have had safeguards in place from the beginning," Jones said.

"The fact that people who have never even interacted with me could go to my channel, clip a small part of a broader conversation, and turn that clip into fuel for attacking me is a huge problem. The fact that folks can easily create one account after another so that they can hide their racist acts behind disposable troll accounts is problematic. The fact that these attacks are not only coming from viewers, but also from Twitch affiliates and fellow Twitch partners is also problematic."

Jones believes that Twitch needs to take two steps immediately to demonstrate a true commitment to change: begin speaking out loudly, consistently, and frequently against trolls, racists, and other abusers, and impose meaningful impose meaningful consequences.

"Allowing them to stay, as well as maintaining their checkmarks and ability to profit from this service, means that Twitch values their own financial stability more than the lives and safety of those who use their service.

Sadly, the reaction to Twitch's announcement of @dearDeere as their newest PogChamp was also notably negative on Twitter and Reddit. After this today, she has emphasized that she will not step back from the threat of harassment.

"When I applied to be on the show, I knew what it would be like. I've been featured before, and I think that's the reaction people like me get. But it's worth it just to be able to represent my community."

In a statement sent to Polygon, Twitch said the new PogChamp program was "created in the spirit of celebrating the diversity of creators" on its platform, but tacitly acknowledged that some participants had issues.

"While the response has been overwhelmingly positive from the community and from those highlighted, we are also in close contact with the new face of PogChamp to provide support as needed," the rep said. We do not tolerate harassment on Twitch and will address any behavior on our service that violates our rules."

Twitch has taken action in recent weeks to implement stricter and clearer policies against racist symbols and sexual insults, but meaningful enforcement against individual actions, especially malicious media manipulation such as Jones' overwatch clips, remains elusive. For more information on Twitch's lack of response to Omega Jones and what Twitch plans to do (if anything) to protect future PogChamp candidates from abuse, we contacted Twitch.