Twitch Revises Sexual Content Policies: Here's What's Changing

After facing criticism for inconsistently moderating sexual content, the popular streaming platform Twitch is altering its stance and loosening previous restrictions.

What Happened: Twitch, on Wednesday, decided to allow some previously banned material, as long as it includes a warning label, The Verge reported. This includes content that prominently features the breasts, buttocks, or pelvic region, whether in drawn, animated, or sculpted form and extends to performances such as strip teases.

Angela Hession, the chief customer trust officer at Twitch, stated that the changes were implemented in response to streamer feedback regarding the platform’s unclear previous policies.

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However, Twitch is maintaining its ban on content associated with sex games, sexual violence, and pornography. Such content remains “entirely prohibited.”

Furthermore, streams tagged as mature will not be featured on the homepage, contrasting with mature-rated game streams, which will be labeled separately.

We've gotten feedback that our policies around sexual content are unclear so we've drawn clearer boundaries between what is & isn't permitted on Twitch.

We also recognize that not everyone wants to see certain content, so we're updating our criteria for homepage recommendations. pic.twitter.com/rvZ4kFADR6

— Twitch (@Twitch) December 13, 2023

Why It Matters: The policy changes come six months after Twitch, a subsidiary of Amazon AMZN, revised its branding guidelines. Twitch prohibited the promotion of marijuana businesses and products while allowing the promotion of alcoholic beverages under the mature content label following backlash from streamers

Twitch had previously made an effort to treat cannabis similarly to alcohol and tobacco. Last year, references related to marijuana were removed from its list of banned usernames. Meanwhile, Amazon, Twitch’s parent company, has been actively advocating for federal marijuana legalization legislation while adopting more progressive internal policies regarding marijuana drug testing for its employees.

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