YouTube and Twitch are two of the most popular outlets for streamers. Youtube usually focuses on content outside of the gaming world, and Twitch almost exclusively focuses on the gaming community, so the crossover of consumers has never been a significant issue before. Ever since YouTube started dabbling in the gaming world though, things have changed. Twitch has also begun to expand outside of just streaming live games, and now the two companies are becoming rivals.
YouTube isn't impressed with the number of people using their platform to promote Twitch videos. According to a report by Engadget, Youtube abruptly deleted accounts that promote Twitch videos without warning. Linus Tech Tips, Surny, and Aztrosizt all claim that YouTube deactivated their accounts for posting Twitch videos. When questioned about their new habit of deleting accounts that promote Twitch videos, YouTube took to Twitter and wrote, "You can absolutely create videos that promote or link to Twitch! And there's no new enforcement." Their statement contradicts their actions, but the website continued on to write, "As stated in our Community Guidelines, if the content's main/sole purpose is to drive people off YouTube and onto another site, it will likely violate our spam policies." It appears that YouTube doesn't want their users leaving their site. The accounts that were deleted have since been reactivated.