Twitch came down on the PogChamp emote last night after Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez asked for more “civil unrest” at the United States Capitol on Twitter. Today, FrankerFaceZ, a popular Twitch extension, went even further by removing the other forms of the PogChamp emote. This PogChamp ban includes the PogU and WeirdChamp emotes as well, which are also other variations of Gootecks’ face.
The PogChamp ban continues on FrankerFaceZ
just in: FrankerFaceZ says that following Twitch, FFZ will remove all variation of PogChamp/Gootecks emotes from the service. founder Dan Salvato tells me this includes PogU and WeirdChamp emotes that will be removed, while others in the gray area are being looked at
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 7, 2021
Esports reporter Rod “Slasher” Breslau reported that Dan Salvato, founder of FrankerFaceZ, spoke to him about the matter. He stated that other emotes were being removed from the service and that others in the gray area were “being looked at.” It’s not clear what these emotes are since PogChamp, PogU, and WeirdChamp are the three most popular Gootecks emotes. Gootecks still hasn’t tweeted about the removal.
Hi everyone, we hear Twitch and we hear you about recent developments surrounding the PogChamp emote. Following Twitch, we'll be removing depictions of the person from FFZ, but it may take some time. Please report any emotes you feel are problematic, and we'll take action. ^DS
— FrankerFaceZ (@FrankerFaceZ) January 7, 2021
However, the FrankerFaceZ Twitter account has tweeted about it. The tweet said that this process might take time and people should remote any other problematic emotes. A follow-up tweet expressed the company’s gratitude for being a “continued evolution of emote culture and positive Twitch community symbolism.”
BetterTTV (BTTV) leader Night says as of now they will NOT be removing any Pog emotes. "in general BetterTTV has never removed emotes due to controversies, and likely won't as a result of this behavior. users have the ability of choice on our platform" https://t.co/3c5KSBuIUl
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 7, 2021
BetterTTV, a third-party Twitch browser extension, opted to not follow in FrankerFaceZ’ footsteps. Breslau also tweeted that its leader, Night, they won’t be taking out any of the Pog emotes. The services has “never removed emotes due to controversies and likely won’t as a result of this behavior.” Night cited “choice” as a something the platform wanted to keep. This includes the Poggers emote that stars innocent-frog-turned-white-nationalist symbol Pepe making the PogChamp face.
This is just one example of the video game world bleeding over into the United States Capitol riots. One rioter had a tattoo was erroneously referred to as an Antifa symbol. However, it was just a tattoo from the Dishonored series. Players have also been searching and rewatching the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 levels that take place in Washington D.C., even if the levels don’t actually take place in the Capitol building.
