Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, „shamelessly” self-promotes his own stream

The CEO of Twitch, Dan Clancy, has found himself in hot water over the weekend. In preparation for his portion of a charity stream, the CEO reportedly visited other popular streamers and promoted his own stream, an act that many consider a faux pas. This would be enough of an annoyance even if it were a small streamer “shamelessly” promoting themselves, but something about the CEO of Twitch doing this makes it sting a lot more. At the time of writing, neither Clancy nor Twitch has responded to the situation, but plenty of other content creators have shared their thoughts.

CEO of Twitch “shamelessly” self-promotes his own stream in other people’s chats

Many people have shared their thoughts on this CEO’s actions, but let’s not overlook the context. This was all circulating around a charity stream, and Twitch’s CEO was not the only person participating. GCX hosted a marathon livestream to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The stream is live at the time of writing, and according to the GXC social media page, is approaching its final segment. However, the effort has already raised over $400 thousand for charity. You can join the stream if you’d like to take part.

A screenshot of Clancy’s alleged message sent in another chat has been shared online, reading: “I am shamelessly going into chat of streamers I know to ask for raids when they are done. I am doing my first charity stream for St Judes as part of the GCX marathon. Not listening since I am streaming…” This also appears to result in the user, DJClancy, getting timed out in this particular instance. Of course, it is possible that anyone could have used this username, but it doesn’t look great.

Streamer KingGothalion, the co-founder of GCX, shared some thoughts on the Twitch CEO’s rampant self-promotion on social media, writing: “…I hate that this is what the thing I founded has become… how did you not set up cameos and corporate support? Why was this reactive instead of proactive?” KingGothalion hits home why this situation changes from an out-of-touch CEO not understanding the basic unspoken rules of their own platform. As the CEO of Twitch, Clancy has so many more resources than almost every other streamer, and rather than take advantage of that and plan responsibly, he appears to have reached out to famous strangers to beg for support.

Ultimately, CEO Dan Clancy’s four-hour stream added $4,000 to the charity pot, which is, of course, admirable. But it’s easy to see how it could have been handled in a much better way. Self-promotion is not against the rules of Twitch, but it’s practically common sense. If you’re a painter, you wouldn’t go to another artist’s gallery and hand out business cards. As the CEO of Twitch, Clancy could have handled this much better. For now, we’ll have to wait to see if there’s any official response to this situation from Twitch.

• Twitch
• streamers and influencers