Pokimane Warns What Might Come Next After NSFW ASMR and Hot Tub Metas

Imane 'Pokimane' Anys has shared her take on the recent ASMR meta and the Hot Tub meta before it. As you may know, Pokimane used to make ASMR videos and did participate in the Hot Tub meta, but not in the NSFW form the trend was known for. During the latter, Pokimane took umbrage not with those fueling the trend, but Twitch for its initial reaction. Eventually, Twitch effectively killed off the stream type, but it looks like the fix was nothing more than a bandaid. A few weeks later, the same streamers pushing the Hot Tub meta birthed the ASMR meta, which proved to be even more sexual, more at odds with the platform's rules, and more controversial.

Last week, Twitch began to take action against the new ASMR meta by dealing out temporary bannings to Amouranth, Indiefoxx, and more. However, it looks unlikely this will completely solve the problem. Meanwhile, Twitch and its biggest content creators now find themselves with a potentially huge advertising problem, similar to the one YouTube and its creators suffered a few years ago over mature, and sometimes controversial, content that advertisers didn't want to associate with.

Speaking about all of this, Pokimane pointed out that she called that this would happen, and to be fair to the streamer, she did, as did many others.

"I did call it," said Pokimane during a recent Twitch stream. "When we talked about the Hot Tub meta, I said listen, Twitch, it doesn't matter if you make a new section for this (which is ultimately what Twitch did) or ban these individual people, or if you ban hot tub streams indoors, they are going to find another way to push the envelope."

Pokimane continued:

"They basically implemented a bandaid fix rather than treat the root cause. It's not about the symptom. It's about the root cause, which is your terms of service and lack of content organization and labeling... on YouTube you had the 'adpocalypse' because of this, and I really hope it doesn't get to that point with Twitch, because if it does, we might end up on in a situation where a lot of your favorite streamers are labeled as 'mature content' just because they are older or discuss things that are meant for adults, but that aren't sexually suggestive."

For now, it remains to be seen what will come of all this. At the moment of publishing, Twitch is keeping quiet and moving slowly, as it often does.

For more coverage on Twitch, Pokimane, and all things gaming -- including all of the latest news, rumors, and leaks -- click here. As always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Do you agree with Pokimane? Is Twitch heading towards disaster?