FaZe Clan member Kaysan recently made headlines after revealing that his Twitch channel was demonetized due to the use of “Iran” as a tag in his livestreams. On November 13, 2024, a video clip from one of Kaysan’s recent broadcasts surfaced on X (formerly Twitter), where he detailed his experience with Twitch’s support team. In a two-minute-31-second video, he shared his frustration over the unexpected demonetization and his conversation with a Twitch representative.

According to Kaysan, he noticed something unusual when he checked his Twitch dashboard: despite running advertisements consistently, he had not received any ad revenue for the entire month. During his stream, he expressed his confusion, stating:

“I go to my Twitch dashboard, right? This month, I noticed that I was receiving zero dollars in ad money. This whole month, while running ads this month, right? I ended up messaging my Twitch rep, who I’m not going to name. And I asked her, I said, ‘Hey, this has to be a mistake. I go to my activity and it says that I’m running 180-second ads every eight minutes.’ Which is strange, right? I see it. It’s on my activity!”

Upon contacting Twitch for clarification, the representative informed him that his channel had been demonetized due to having “Iran” listed as a tag in his stream’s metadata. This came as a shock to Kaysan, who explained that he had been using the tag for about two years without any issues, primarily to represent his heritage as an Iranian.

Questioning Twitch’s Policy and Fairness

Kaysan emphasized that his channel does not focus on political content. He questioned whether other streamers, particularly those who often discuss politics, such as Hasan “HasanAbi,” have faced similar consequences. The 29-year-old streamer voiced his curiosity:

“As you guys know, I don’t speak about politics. I don’t come on here and speak about politics. I’m actually very curious to know if streamers like HasanAbi have been demonetized for talking about politics.”

Despite his frustrations, Kaysan refrained from directly blaming Twitch, acknowledging that the decision may have been influenced by advertisers rather than the platform itself. He speculated that advertisers were pulling back from politically sensitive content, especially with the upcoming elections, which could explain the decision:

“Now, I’m not going to sit here and blame Twitch necessarily because I don’t know the facts. But I do know that she said that it was advertisers who have been steering away from ‘politics.’ I think because of the election. So, I guess, advertisers didn’t want to run ads on my stream because I had Iran as a tag.”

Twitch’s Silence on the Issue

As of now, Twitch has yet to release an official statement addressing the reasons behind the demonetization of Kaysan’s channel. This incident raises questions about the platform’s policies regarding content tagging and the extent to which advertisers influence decisions on content monetization. Kaysan’s case highlights potential challenges that streamers may face when their content, even if non-political, is perceived as sensitive by advertisers.

The situation has sparked discussions within the streaming community about transparency and fairness, particularly for streamers who use tags to represent their cultural identity. Whether this incident leads to a review of Twitch’s content policies remains to be seen, but it certainly underscores the delicate balance between content creators, platforms, and advertisers in the digital space.

For now, Kaysan continues to seek clarity on the issue, hoping that his experience can shed light on how tags are being evaluated and used by the platform to determine ad suitability.

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