A few days ago Twitch made some big changes to the way archived streams and highlights were handled on their site. Rumored to be implemented as a result of their recent purchase by Google, Twitch announced that they would be deleting all non-highlighted archives, and that stream highlights would now be limited to two hours, requiring longer videos to be cut into parts. In addition, content id software was implemented that muted highlights and archives that contained copyrighted music (much like what recently happened over on YouTube). Needless to say many Twitch users were outraged by these new restrictions, and some famous streamers even announced intentions to switch to a different streaming site. Yesterday Twitch held a Reddit AMA to address some concerns, and have now reversed some of their new policies, such as the two hour limit on highlights. They have also added an appeal button for muted streams so that users can get their videos unmuted if they feel the music is not copyrighted.
I am an avid Twitch user and if this is the direction Google wants to take the site I too would consider looking elsewhere. But these quick reversals show that somebody is listening, so for now I will wait and see what happens in the coming months.
