Popular Twitch streamer ExtraEmily has announced she’s stepping away from streaming for a while following a string of controversies regarding viewbotting allegations.
“I will work on my mental health during my break. I’m going dark on socials,” she said during a recent stream. Emily further confirmed that she wants to come back stronger, saying, “I don’t think I’m going to quit, there’s no way.”
Things started to get heated on April 16, when a clip from one of ExtraEmily’s chatting livestreams began making the rounds on social media. In the video, she accidentally flashed her open browser tabs while scrolling through her Discord server, and one of them appeared to show a site, known as Viewbot AI, which is allegedly used to artificially inflate viewer counts on Twitch.
The clip started to spread fast, and moderators initially removed the thread, citing that the website she had been on had a pop-up that could automatically redirect to the viewbotting site. The controversy only grew from there, and things got more complicated when the admin of the viewbotting site allegedly surfaced a purchase receipt linked to an email matching ExtraEmily’s public profile.
Mizkif, who is also a member of the OTK streaming collective alongside ExtraEmily, pushed back against the allegations during one of his own streams, saying the website doesn’t make sense: “I am very confused on how they’re able to throw those names out there, and it’s somehow legit.”
He even got in touch with the website owner on Discord, who seemed to confirm she was buying viewbots and even claimed her management team was involved as well: ”We worked with their management teams in the past for some of their events. It’s mostly embeds, so all legit traffic to boost them higher on important events.”
ExtraEmily announces her break from streaming
On April 21, during her IRL stream, ExtraEmily addressed the situation and announced she was stepping back from streaming immediately. She said the recent controversies had caused her to seriously consider quitting altogether, and she’ll go dark on social media.
While ExtraEmily has confirmed her return down the line, she hasn’t given a proper timeline yet, and it remains unclear how Twitch will respond to the allegations going forward. At the time of writing, no official ban or formal action has been confirmed from Twitch’s end.
It still needs to be seen if Twitch takes any action or not, but I hope ExtraEmily comes back stronger, as these kind of allegations takes a huge mental toll, and ultimately deprives health.
