Twitch has introduced a novel “Politics and Sensitive Social Issues” label for broadcasts that “focus” on topics such as “elections, civic integrity and war or armed conflict.” Similar to the streaming giant’s existing labels for M-rated material, sexual themes or depictions of gambling, the idea is that viewers can filter out such streams in advance by changing their settings.
Similarly, advertisers can “make better choices about the content they want to advertise alongside” – in other words, choose ads from across the board if they don’t want to be associated with anything controversial. Twitch hopes that “the labels will give advertisers more context to let them know what stream types they are running their ads on, which we hope will increase brands’ confidence in serving ads on Twitch, and could drive new advertisers to our service.”
Streamers who do not properly operate this label will receive email warnings and their accounts will ultimately be suspended. Twitch can also intervene to apply labels without the streamer’s consent.
The funds were there announced on November 1and it clearly came at an opportune time to reign in the polemics of the November 5 U.S. presidential election. The post above contains a link to a longer but far from complete breakdown of the novel content category – here are some examples of broadcasts that will require the Politics and sensitive social issues label in the future:
Broadcasts featuring former or current political officials when the content includes discussions with them about public policies
Live coverage or commentary regarding elections, civic processes or election-related disputes
Live broadcasts of protests, rallies and civil unrest related to civil rights issues or government policies
Discussing armed conflicts, foreign policy decisions, or national security matters
Discussion of ideological or sociopolitical views on topics such as gender, race, sexuality, or religion
Discussing legislation on sensitive social issues such as reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigration
As for what doesn’t require a label, Twitch has nothing against “streams that contain informational or educational content that is intended to share knowledge in a neutral, fact-based manner, rather than to engage in any form of advocacy for an issue or candidate.” “for example, sharing the history of vote counting in the US presidential election to determine the next president, or simply encouraging individuals to vote or register to vote.” They also don’t mind “occasional mentions of politics, politicians or sensitive social issues.”
Like many Twitch users – emphasized on social mediaall these markings are quite blurry and that’s why effortless to twist and arm against defenseless groups. What exactly does “intermittent” mean as a percentage of total streaming time? Does “sharing knowledge in a neutral, fact-based way” become “advocacy” when the facts presented lead to certain conclusions?
This ambiguity leaves the novel category open to bad faith reporting. The requirement to categorize streams as “political” so that people and advertisers can avoid them could also have a chilling effect on discussions about political narratives and themes in video games. For example, Dragon Age: The Veilguard places diversity as a cornerstone of its work, but a streamer’s discussion would run the risk of their broadcasts being considered political and thus losing access to some potential viewers and advertising revenue.
