The interest here isn't in using the proprietary Twitch source code to build competing services. Rather, this code offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one of the Anglosphere's most significant social media platforms. A chance perform a concrete analysis of all the anti-patterns, surveillance mechanisms, and information controls which characterize modern platform capitalism. A chance to measure our paranoia against the state of the art of corporate social media.

It would be even cooler if we could dig through the code of Facebook, Google, or Twitter, but Twitch is close enough where we could extrapolate a lot of insights and better understand the state of the industry.

These past few years there has been a lot of discourse about "The Algorithm." How all these major platforms, like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube curate what we see based on marketing profiles, demographic information, our comment, likes, dislikes, tracking cookies etc. How they shattering our shared epistemology. How they push particular narratives and ideologies, while demoting or censoring information which threatens the state. How they shadow-ban users and media. The ability to demystify "The Algorithm" and understand exactly what these companies are doing behind the scenes is incredibly valuable.