Middle Eastern Streamers Not Given Payouts

Several Middle Eastern Twitch streamers complained that the broadcasting site abruptly stopped paying out payouts on February 19th. All money from subscriptions and bits is included in these payouts.

Several well-known Twitch streamers expressed their dissatisfaction with their alleged pay stoppage, begging with the site to quickly resolve the unknown issue. Others, like Twitch streamer ohmyTalal, shared screenshots with only a vague explanation of the problem.

Many streamers claim they have used the same tax information for several years, and the sudden halt placed on an entire region has raised their suspicions. Screenshots of emails from Twitch support point to issues “due to a discrepancy with certain tax information provided during the onboarding process.”

With the hashtag #twitch arab streamers, Middle Eastern twitch streamers began increasing awareness of the payout issue. Thousands of streamers from the Middle East have posted similar stories on the burgeoning hashtag, which has gained popularity over the course of this payout block. Streamers are still able to broadcast, but they are only able to earn money through direct donations. Streamers with proper tax information, as well as those who used inaccurate information, faced a payout block, according to Ragid Hallak, Head of Comms/Organizing at the Arab Game Awards. 

Ragid stated in an interview with Gamactica; “Streamers in the MENA region face various challenges starting with small things like Middle Eastern or North African servers to MENA specific support. Also to this day, Twitch does not have Arabic Localization of their website, which also somewhat holding it back in the region.” 

Twitch has yet to respond to the situation, despite the fact that more Middle Eastern streamers have reported the same payment troubles this week.