The U.S. Army has a Twitch channel that it uses to fish for potential recruits. Last week, it came under fire for issuing bans to viewers who inquired about war crimes. This week, a report of The nation He went deeper, noting, among other things, that the channel had a habit of running fake driver gifts that redirected viewers to a recruitment page. After widespread scrutiny, Twitch says it has forced the army to stop.
According to The nation, the giveaways, which took place “repeatedly” in chat, offered viewers a chance to win an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. However, clicking on the associated link would send viewers to a recruitment page “without further mention of a contest, odds, total number of winners or when a draw will occur.”
Upon learning of this yesterday, viewers and Twitch streamers reacted in disbelief.
“Twitch’s silence on the latest wave of criticism regarding the military using the site to trick children into sharing personal information speaks volumes.” said streamer Jayson “ManVsGame” Love On twitter. “Imagine any another channel doing that. I guess feel free to manipulate your viewers as much as you want. “
“Hey Twitch, you are using your platform to always run scams against him [terms of service] Or does the United States Army receive a special exception when they search for children’s blood instead of money? game developer Bruno Dias he said on Twitter.
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Now Twitch says it forced the Army to stop using this obviously false tactic.
“Under our Terms of Service, promotions on Twitch must comply with all applicable laws,” said a Twitch spokesperson. Kotaku in an email “This promotion did not meet our Terms, and we have required them to remove it.”
Kotaku He contacted the U.S. Army esports team for information on why they chose to run these fake gifts in the first place, but did not respond.
Twitch viewers have seen a lot of the Army recently. In addition to running a Twitch channel, the U.S. military is also an official sponsor of Twitch’s brand and e-sports channel, Twitch Rivals. This means, among other things, that the Army logo appears alongside electronic sports broadcasts focused on renowned games such as League of Legends, Valorantand even chess, which has multiple popular personalities. Commentators also periodically shout at the Army, which is upset bystanders in the past. Two sources talking to Kotaku on condition of anonymity, he said this deal likely cost the Army about $ 1 million.
Army propaganda is eerily common in the United States, to the point that many living in the United States hardly notice it. But the Army esports branch continues to receive criticism for its methods on Twitch. Their Twitch channel goes one step beyond standard propaganda, with recruiters playing video games and leveraging Twitch’s powerful ability to build parasocial relationships to convince impressionable youth to enlist (the Army channel is not blocked behind any sort of old door). Further, the ACLU and other legal organizations have said that the Army channel’s tendency to prohibit users from asking questions is unconstitutional because the government cannot legally prohibit speech based on point of view.
“Calling government war crimes is not harassment, that is, the truth to power” the ACLU said On twitter. “And banning users from asking important questions is not ‘flexing’, it is unconstitutional.”
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