XQc is by no means the perfect role model, but as a veteran of the streaming industry, he had some words of wisdom for Adin Ross last night after the young streamer announced he would start streaming on Kick.
Kick is a newer platform that is still in beta, but early in its existence, it has already drawn criticism for some of its questionable ties to the gambling company Stake and for lacking moderation. Among the chorus of voices criticizing the platform following Trainwreck’s announcement that he would be an advisor for it was former Twitch staffer DJWheat, who called Kick a “sham.”
From xQc’s perspective, Ross’ actions mirror some of the ways that controversial online figure Andrew Tate acts and interacts with his audience. Ross is a noted fan and friend of Tate, who has been banned on many platforms for openly misogynistic behavior. Tate is currently being detained in Romania on suspicions of human trafficking.
“He’s trying really hard to emulate the things that are happening to Tate,” he said. “It’s a really unhealthy rabbit hole to go down. … I don’t think he truly wants it. I don’t think he gets it. This is just my opinion. I don’t think he understands how these things are going to work and what is happening, but he’s still emulating them.”
By talking about how he was allegedly silenced, Ross appears to be embodying some of the qualities that Tate has in the past. Tate experienced many troubles with bans on social media sites for sharing his controversial viewpoints to a large audience, and xQc seems to think that Ross is trying to pull from the Tate playbook by leaning into the notion that Twitch doesn’t want fans to know what’s really going on.
Ross hinted over the weekend that Twitch prevented him from doing and saying certain things, which he did not disclose, during a YouTube video titled “They tried to silence me.” Since then, he said that he will start to stream on Kick, but in the process, he left the door open for coming back to Twitch if his community preferred the more established platform.
When Trainwreck originally brought Kick to everyone’s attention late last year, he similarly announced that he would stream on Kick, but he said that he would still stream on Twitch. Both streamers remain partners on Twitch because of a change to the platform’s rules about affiliate and partnered creators streaming on other platforms that happened last year.
