Twitch streamer Maya Higa baffled her face has been an emote for years without permission

Maya Higa was shocked to learn that her face had been used as a popular emote on Twitch for years without her permission or even knowing about it.

The creator discovered in February 2026, during a livestream, that an animated laughing emote of her face was being widely used across Twitch. She’d previously thought it only appeared on her own channel, as it was created using the 7TV extension, which adds extra features to the platform.

She explained that she was watching a clip from Julia’s livestream when she noticed herself in the footage. She was surprised, thinking it was just a recording of her own channel and not something others were seeing.

She quickly realized her assumption was wrong when people explained the emote was popular everywhere, not just within her audience.

Maya Higa stunned over 4,000 channels use emote of her face

7TV shows the emote is being used in over 4,000 Twitch channels, which surprised Higa.

Higa was confused, but her viewers loved the emote, which she didn’t understand at all.

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She bluntly stated, “It’s just not good.” She added that even as an emote, it didn’t work, and jokingly wondered if this would be what she’s remembered for.

Although she was surprised, Higa reacted calmly. She playfully questioned the situation, saying, “That’s wild, right? Why?” but quickly dismissed it with a shrug. “I’m just happy if people enjoy it,” she added.

Although people still use Maya’s ‘lmao’ emote, Twitch surprised many viewers earlier this year by unexpectedly deleting several popular emotes.

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2026-02-05 23:18