Twitch viewers are no strangers to verbal abuse, offensive images, and other forms of online harassment. The popular streaming platform is aware of these issues and is updating its harassment policy for 2021 to crack down on them.
Here’s what’s changing and when the changes are going to take place.
Twitch is cracking down on bigotry and sexual harassment
Twitch’s main two focuses are on preventing hateful content and sexual harassment. They are taking big steps towards punishing and reducing this kind of behavior. Here is a list of the things that Twitch is going to forbid in the coming year.
- Images of the Confederate flag
- Misgendering individuals
- Hate speech and hate symbols
- Hate groups and propaganda for hate groups
- Using malicious emotes
- Holocaust denial
- Encouraging people to swat others
- Encouraging people to DDoS others
- Asking for nudes
- Unwanted advances
- Revenge porn
- Leaking nudes
- Objectifying statements
Twitch is now holding its streamers more responsible for the behavior of their audience than in the past. “You are expected to use channel moderators and the tools we provide, such as AutoMod, chat timeouts, and bans, to mitigate hateful conduct and harassment in your channel,” the new rules state. “Not using the provided tools to moderate hateful conduct appearing on your channel will lead to a suspension.”
It will be interesting to see what kind of punishments Twitch will issue to streamers and users who violate these policies. In the past, Twitch has generally handled these issues with suspensions and bans. This will likely continue; however, streamers will need to be aware of the new rules.
The new policy will be active as of January 22, 2021, and it will not be retroactively applied to content that was posted before that.
The platform wants to ensure that it offers a safe and positive environment for its streamers and their audiences. Cracking down on this behavior will surely help them do just that.
