Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa is an important presence on Twitch, with 2.8 million followers and over 19,000 subscribers according to TwitchTracker. Despite this, her ability to place ads on her videos has been suspended by Twitch without any notice or explanation other than that her stream is "not advertiser friendly," according to Twitch.

"Yesterday I was informed that Twitch has suspended advertising on my channel indefinitely," Siragusa tweeted. 'Twitch never contacted me. I had to break the story out because I noticed all my ad revenue disappearing from my channel analytics without any prior warning.

"This is an alarming precedent, and while the content may not ostensibly violate community guidelines or terms of service, Twitch has complete discretion to target individual channels for content that is deemed 'not advertiser friendly,' partially This is a stark warning that Twitch has full discretion to target individual channels and can partially or entirely demonize a channel for content deemed 'not advertiser friendly'. Thus, the question of where the line is drawn remains unresolved.

Siragusa is undeniably a polarizing figure on Twitch. She is a regular hot tub streamer, a relatively new phenomenon that is essentially the same as "Just Chatting," except that she wears a bathing suit while relaxing in a hot tub or pool. She has also faced no small amount of abusive criticism for delivering overtly sexual content, but to be clear, the stream does not violate Twitch's content guidelines:

"Swimsuits are allowed as long as they completely cover genitalia and if you appear as a woman nipples must also be covered if appearing as a woman. While the buttocks do not need to be fully covered, camera focus around the buttocks is still subject to our sexually suggestive content policy. They must be completely opaque, even when wet. Swimwear and other garments that are transparent or partially transparent are not covered"

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Whatever one thinks of the streamer itself, Siragusa's point is valid: the issue here is not the suspension itself, but that it was based on guidelines that the streamer was not informed of and was imposed without warning.

"When I asked my (Twitch) partner manager why my ads were showing as 0 after May 7, she too expressed surprise at first and introduced me to the advertising products that will be rolled out," she told Kotaku." After inquiring internally, she apparently came back with a prepared statement. She clarified that in the short term, the ads were not going to be introduced. They vaguely suggested that not all content allowed under the [Terms of Service] is suitable for all advertisers.

In a stream that ran yesterday, Siragusa said that her monthly advertising income amounted to $40,000 before the suspension. This amount is larger than the monthly donations she receives, she said, but added that she is "diversified" and therefore not entirely dependent on Twitch. Many other streamers, however, are not so fortunate.

"This is not a case of crying, 'Oh no, the ads are on .......' ' and not at all a cry for help. I think the scariest problem that non-broadcasters don't realize is that they don't communicate in a stealthy way. And I think that's the big problem here that creators are worried about."

Twitch has struggled for years to manage mature content on the site: in 2014 it changed its code of conduct, banning "topless or 'sexually suggestive' streaming," and in 2018 it made it even stricter. There has been backlash: in 2019, for example, streamers organized a "SlutStream" day on Twitch to raise awareness of online harassment.

At the same time, Twitch has faced a lot of criticism for its lack of communication with streamers. Perhaps the most famous is the suspension of Dr. Disrespect in 2020: a year after this incident, we still do not know why his channel was permanently banned, and it seems unlikely that we ever will. But as Siragusa stated on Twitter, streamers at least have guidelines regarding what content is allowed on their platforms.

We have reached out to Siragusa and Twitch for more information and will update if we hear back.