Twitch Latin Guild Panelists Face Backlash Over Upcoming TwitchCon Panel

TwitchCon San Diego released its schedule ahead of its September 20th launch, featuring panels from prominent streamers like Lowco, Thormungandr, and Blizz. One panel, hosted by Twitch Latin Guild members and titled "Digital Cultura," drew significant attention when Latine streamers criticized the lack of Afro-Latine voices on a panel centered on colorism.

Critics questioned why a panel discussing stereotypes and caricatures of Latin American characters in video games was represented by three White Latine creators. Many Latine creators highlighted that these creators were occupying a space that may be better served by uplifting Afro-Latine and brown creators who can share their experiences on this topic.

One of the White Latine panelist, Cafe Cultivar founder and Latin Guild member Ashlinaa stated in a tweet that the panel originally was meant to focus on the challenges and experiences of being a Latine content creator, but Twitch changed the panel topic last minute to appeal to a wider audience at TwitchCon. She also added that Afro-Latines were being represented on the panel by fellow Cafe Cultivar and Latin Guild members Friskk and GypsyflyPMS.

The discourse culminated when another White Latine panelist, Jupieverse, replied rudely to the above tweet with this:

The reply from Jupieverse was passive aggressive and several content creators discussing the issues about the TwitchCon panel immediately called her out on it.

Jupieverse followed up with a defensive tweet criticizing the Afro-Latine and brown voices that were calling out her and the other White-presenting Latines on the panel.

This is when the narrative had a major shift from the issues surrounding the panel to focusing on Jupieverse’s replies to criticism.

Over the last several days, many streamers have come forward to share their negative experiences with Jupieverse including members of stream team Andromeda Arcade, previous mods from Jupieverse’s channel, and others. I haven’t asked for permission to share these various accounts about Jupieverse so I won’t include them in this article, but they are out there if you want to look for them. There are some shocking revelations about someone long considered an ally in the streaming community.

Following the backlash and the revelation about Jupieverse’s character, Jupieverse has not only stepped down from the panel, but has also been removed from Cafe Cultivar and the Twitch Latin Guild. In an apology tweet thread, Ashlinaa also shared that she would be stepping away from the panel to support Afro-Latine, Indigenous, and other marginalized voices.

After removing herself from the discourse for a few days, Jupieverse made a half-heartedly attempt to clear the air with back to back Google docs that share her side of the story. The first doc focuses on her denying her part in the first-hand accounts of those she negatively impacted over the years and the second doc highlights the content from the original panel and how it was changed by Twitch. Based on reactions from streamers on Twitter, I don’t think anyone is buying any of what she is saying. Well, except her die-hard fans.

At this time, it appears that the “Digital Cultura” panel has been removed from the TwitchCon website. The Twitch Latin Guild also held a town hall to discuss the entire situation, though I have no visibility on the results of that conversation. If you’re part of the guild and would like to chat, please reach out!

As a brown Puerto Rican / Ecuadorian Twitch streamer, this entire situation was incredibly discouraging and disappointing.

Jupieverse’s past behavior and behavior around the panel were gross and not representative of someone who genuinely wants to advocate for marginalized voices. She came across as immature and selfish. Perhaps she will learn from this experience, but based on what she shared in her recent response, I’m not holding my breath.

I think it is important to not lose sight of the main issue which is the panel itself, and the discussion on appropriate representation or lack thereof. Both the panelists and Twitch should share the blame for how this turned out. I think this all could have been avoided had the panelists had more self awareness and thought critically about their involvement on the panel and maybe pushed back on the drastic changes Twitch made to the panel topic. Twitch staff should also be held accountable for making changes last minute and diluting what could have been a very informative panel just to appeal to those outside of the Latin community. Twitch’s missteps in effectively representing marginalized communities has always been a topic of discussion and this is just the latest example of them falling short.

I’m hopeful that the discussions behind closed doors will yield some positive results and we will have future opportunities to uplift BIPOC creators in the streaming space.