The Reason xQc Got Suspended From Twitter
Controversial streamer xQc might be used to getting bans and suspensions after receiving his fair share from Twitch and gaming leagues, but now he can add Twitter to the list — and for a very peculiar reason.
On Dec. 28, xQc was locked out of his Twitter account after receiving a notice from the site that he had violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The streamer claimed that the offense came from a clip he posted of his own stream that was over a year old. "Wonderful and well [thought] out system!!" xQc sarcastically wrote in his standard use of all caps. "Next stop? Jail!"
The tweet's ending remark referred to the recent passing of a new law which cracks down on copyright infringement, which was tacked onto the U.S. stimulus bill. The CASE Act was created to inflict harsher punishments on copyright violators, including high fines and possible jail time. While we don't know for certain why xQc's clip was tagged for suspension, the issue of using copyrighted material such as songs and sound effects has been a blight for content creators online as the DMCA has become more and more vigilant.
The DMCA was passed in 1998 as a collaboration of industry corporations and legislators in order to control trademarked material in the beginning days of the internet, when sharing music and video files was becoming a common practice. Now that sites like YouTube and Twitch have become vastly more popular, creators are seeing a rise in notices that attempt to shut down any possible infringement, such as playing a popular song while streaming. Sites like Twitch (and now, apparently, Twitter) would rather not get into legal battles with big companies over copyright violations, and it's the creators who are receiving the repercussions.
While Twitch made an attempt to assist streamers to protect themselves against DMCA takedowns via a blog post made in October, there have still been a number of issues pertaining to creators getting suspended or banned from the platform, sometimes thanks to older videos. xQc may have been a victim of circumstance, it seems, since he claimed that the clip in question was over a year old. The video was also made up of clips from xQc's Twitch, so it's possible that his Twitter feed was somehow tracked down from there.
All xQc had to do to get his account unlocked was review Twitter's copyright policy, but his brief suspension may set a precedent for other supposed violations on Twitter thanks to the DMCA.