Twitch Is Going To Retire The Popular 'BibleThump' Emote, Even Though Its Copyright Owner Is Willing To Let Them Keep Using It

Twitch has announced with apparent sadness that the popular emote BibleThump, a staple of Twitch chats since 2013, will be leaving the platform on Monday, September 30th.

Twitch's tweet announcing the departure of BibleThump seems mournful that its rights to the emote have expired. The "BibleThump" image comes from the video game The Binding of Isaac, which was created by Edmurd McMillen. McMillen is also the copyright holder of the BibleThump image.

However, while Twitch's tweet seems to imply that its rights to the emote have simply expired and nothing can be done about that, McMillen sounded a bit confused about the emote's impending disappearance from Twitch. After the streaming platform's announcement, McMillen tweeted he was "100% fine with coming up with a good solution to keep or modify the emote," suggesting that it was Twitch's decision to let its rights to BibleThump expire.

McMillen's response to the situation resulted in a Community Note under Twitch's tweet reading, "Edmund McMillen, creator and current rights holder of The Binding of Isaac (the property the emote originates from) has said publicly he is open to renewing the rights and/or working out a deal. It is Twitch's choice not to do so." The context led many to view Twitch's announcement as disingenuous, and many criticized Twitch for being cheap.

Twitch has not offered an explanation as to why it is not interested in renewing BibleThump, but for the time being, Twitch chatters have until Monday to spam it for the last time.