The boundaries for what is acceptable or not on Twitch have been a hot topic of debate for a long time. Since the end of 2023, Twitch has struggled to find a balance of what should or should not be allowed for users streaming on the platform. While the company originally changed its approach to sexual content policies on Twitch, there were unintended consequences from a wave of content that was borderline explicit. Following this, Twitch has decided to change its policies yet again.
In a blog post shared by Twitch on Wednesday January 3rd, 2024, Angela Hession, Twitch’s chief customer trust officer, announced the company would be banning implied nudity on all content on Twitch. The change went into effect immediately after the blog post went live. Angela explained in detail why this change was happening so quickly and how it would impact their sexual content guidelines.
“This update is in response to a recent meta on Twitch in which streamers use black censor bars or other items to block their bodies or clothing, or position the camera frame such that the viewer is led to believe that the streamer is fully or partially nude…” Angela went on to discuss that despite streamers labeling their live streams as content that included sexual themes, the thumbnails and previews of their content were still very disruptive. The content in question still appeared in categories that users were browsing, even though none of it would show up on the Twitch home page.
After the initial changes to Twitch’s policies, many streamers tried to capitalize on any loopholes around the new rules regarding content that was deemed too sexual for the platform. While the first changes allowed for artistic nudity in some cases, this new approach from Twitch is much more stern. The company is hoping that the new wording to their policy will prevent issues from happening and allow more people to enjoy browsing through the platform.
“Our goal, with this and other recent changes, is to make Twitch a safe and welcoming place for all of the communities that call it home, improve the clarity of our policies, and ensure that people have the experience they expect when spending time on Twitch.” The company also stated in the blog post that they were working on features that would have the thumbnails of streams blurred out if the stream in question is labeled to have sexual themes.
