Earlier this month, Twitch revealed that its parent company, Amazon, uses streamers’ content for AI training unless they opt out. The move triggered backlash from the Twitch community and has now led to a lawsuit.
As Courthouse News reports, the lawsuit was filed last week by a Twitch streamer named Warren Pandiscia in the Northern District of California. It claims that Amazon and Twitch have been harvesting Twitch content for AI training since 2024, but have only now informed users about it.
Additionally, the lawsuit calls out both companies for automatically enrolling users in the AI training program by introducing an opt-out button rather than an opt-in one. It also cites a comment made by Twitch’s chief product officer, Mike Minton, who defended the decision. “If it was opt-in, nobody would opt in. That’s honestly the answer,” Minton said in a live Q&A after Twitch made the announcement on Aug. 12.
“Defendants’ actions were not only unlawful, but an unconscionable attack on the community of content creators whose content is used to fuel the multitrillion-dollar generative AI industry without any compensation,” the lawsuit says.
It further claims that Amazon and Twitch’s actions breached an implied contract with creators. Though Twitch content isn’t registered with the US Copyright Office, when a user signs up and uploads content on the platform, both parties agree to an implied contract whose terms, according to the lawsuit, include use of content within the scope of a disclosed partnership and revenue-sharing model, as well as prohibiting its copying for undisclosed commercial use.
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Pandiscia wants the case to be deemed a class action and is seeking damages for the creators.
If you’re on Twitch and would like to opt-out of Amazon’s AI training, head to Settings > Security and Privacyand disable the toggle next to Training for Generative AI. This only blocks your streams from being used for AI training; if you enter someone else’s stream, their terms will decide whether the chat is used for AI training.
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Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
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