KFC Promotion Unintentionally Enables Racism on Twitch

We previously reported on a sponsorship between KFC and Twitch, promoting the Chicken franchise through games of PUBG. While the idea of a "chicken dinner" giveaway sounds cute initially, the reality was far more disparaging.

Popular Twitch streamer Mychal "Trihex" Jefferson remarked on the inevitably racist connotations that a bucket of chicken emote would have on the platform.

"I feel bad for POCs right now . . . Do no black people work at Twitch?"

Trihex elaborates further, to explain that while the emote itself isn't inherently racist, it's a problematic tool that will be abused on the site for racial purposes.

"Connotations of racial tropes (Blacks love chicken) doesn't phase me cuz I don't identify em as valid (Everyone loves chicken, plus KFC is low-tier trash anyway. BUT that doesn't stop this from being an issue combined w/ streamer accountability of their communities w/ new TOS."

He is referring to the recent change to Twitch's Terms of Service, which emphasizes a lack of tolerance for "conduct that encourages or condones hate or harassment in any way" for both the chat and the streamer.

"Twitch should not be used to incite, encourage, promote, facilitate, or organize hateful conduct or harassment, whether on or off Twitch. We will suspend communities, organizations, and individuals that do so."

The racially charged use of emotes is nothing new to Trihex. The popular global emote "trihard" is of his face and is a common tool for racist comments on Twitch. Use of that emote recently led to the second suspension and subsequent release of former Dallas Fuel player Félix xQc Lengyel.

A KFC rep spoke out about the problem.

"We are aware of the instances of abuse of our emote to which we think you're referring. We will never be enablers of bigotry, and we're not going to tolerate our brand being used to bully or intimidate others."

The promotional event has already come to an end, and with it the emote. When a Twitch chat grows large enough to draw in a massive audience, internet trolls take advantage of the platform to taunt others with racist, sexist, and otherwise harassing messages. While the emote may be gone, we will likely see it replicated in the more toxic communities on the site.