Two popular third-party Twitch tools, OverRustle Logs and CommanderRoot’s changelog tool, are shutting down after Twitch Legal requested that they cease operations.
OverRustle Logs saved public chat logs for the top streamers on the platform and allowed users to search and browse the historic chat data for their streams.
CommanderRoot’s changelog tool saved the historical changes to a Twitch account such as username changes and changes to an accounts’ partnered status and allowed users to view all these changes.
Several Twitch streamers and moderators have praised the tools and said that Twitch’s native moderation tools aren’t as good as these third-party alternatives.
Twitch viewers would also often use OverRustle Logs to easily verify what was said in the chat during specific streams.
In the takedown requests, Twitch Legal wrote that the tools were “a source of user complaints” and in violation of Twitch’s Developer Services Agreement which prohibits using chat logs to create public databases and caching information such as username changes.
Twitch didn’t specify what the nature of these user complaints were but some critics of the tools have raised concerns about private information that was posted to Twitch chats without consent being archived in a publicly searchable database.
The takedown request sent to the developer of CommanderRoot’s changelog tool also claimed that several users had expressed “frustration” with the tool and that the developer hadn’t responded to their requests to have information deleted.
CommanderRoot’s developer responded to the takedown notice by stating: “Giving the users the option to have an entry removed is in my opinion also not a good option as that would compromise the integrity of the site. What is the site worth if you can’t trust its data?”
CommanderRoot’s developer has already shut down its changelog tool while OverRustle Logs will be shutting down its service on May 1 but keeping its code available on GitHub.
Both sites have thanked the users who have supported them over the years and the developer of CommanderRoot added: “Unfortunately this leaves a somewhat bitter taste and I’m not sure if I want to continue to “support” Twitch with any other tools I might think of in the future.”
Some in the Twitch community are also asking why Twitch is coming after these third-party tools now with the timing raising questions over whether more third-party services could be hit with similar takedown requests in the near future.
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