Twitch has added a novel category to its own content classification guidelines covering “politics and sensitive social issues”, which means that broadcasts discussing topics such as “elections, civic integrity, war or armed conflict and civil rights” will need to be marked appropriately so that viewers do not accidentally stumble upon them and have been exposed for content they may find offensive.
Content Rating Labels are required for streams that do not violate Twitch Community Guidelines but contain material that may not be “suitable for everyone, including younger viewers.” In the past, this has included M-rated games, sexual themes, drug operate, violence, and gambling. Now a novel, vaguely defined category has been added to the list, covering “discussions and debates about political or sensitive social issues.”
The novel content category comes after an ugly month for Twitch. A popular streamer was Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt suspended for two weeks after a racist tirade in which he described Palestinians as “terrible people” from a “lower culture”. (He’s back now, by the way.) A week later, Twitch he banned several Arab streamers during a month-long TwitchCon panel in which they ranked other streamers on a scale from “Arab” to “loves Sabra”, with Sabra being a hummus brand owned by the Israeli-American partnership.
Around the same time, it came to featherlight that Twitch had quietly done so I have stopped accepting registrations verified by e-mail address from Israel and Palestine over a year earlier. Twitch quickly apologized for the “unacceptable mistake and the confusion it caused,” saying it initially disabled email verification signups after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 “to prevent uploads of visuals” and somehow forgot to turn them back on to turn on.
These events put Twitch’s politics under the microscope, as various parties accused the platform of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and/or gross negligence or plain incompetence.
Encouraged by these accusations, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy published a post message stated today that “racism, hatred, or harassment of any kind, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, has no place on Twitch,” and that when Twitch discovers content that violates its rules, it takes “immediate enforcement action.”
“Millions of streamers with diverse views and perspectives spend time on Twitch,” Clancy wrote. “We recognize that some content, while permitted on our website, may be objectionable to some members of our community. The views shared by streamers on Twitch are not the views of Twitch or my personal views.
“We appreciate the feedback and input from our community. Our approach to security is constantly developing and evolving as our services develop. We want to make sure everyone can find their place on Twitch and we continue to ensure that hate and harassment have no place here.”
This is a very standard, easygoing kind of “zero tolerance,” but it does come with some novel rules – or, more precisely, a novel content category for “politics and sensitive issues” that will require classification labels on streams covering such topics. topics. Examples cited by Twitch include:
- 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
Content labels will not be required for broadcasts “containing informational or educational content that is intended to share knowledge in a neutral and fact-based manner and not to engage in any advocacy of an issue or candidate.” Broadcasts containing “occasional mentions of politics, policies or sensitive social issues” are also exempt from labeling requirements.
From the very beginning, the whole thing looks impossibly confusing and far more likely to make things worse than better. Does neutral, “educational content” cover topics such as the rise of fascism in the US or the attempt to overthrow the legally elected government on January 6, 2021, or does this fall under the scope of “commentary on electoral disputes”? ” Does citing Utah’s proposed anti-transgender legislation qualify as a “neutral, fact-based” presentation, or is it a discussion of a sensitive social issue? Who decides and on what basis?
I don’t think content guidelines are inherently bad, but they do seem like a hasty, scattershot attempt to present yourself as “doing something” that ultimately ends up being nothing more than forced. What is neutrality in the face of rising white supremacy and LGBTQ+ hatred? What is ideological when we talk about the right to exist?
Predictably, the reaction to the announcement of the new classification labels has been chaotic and widely dissatisfied. There are numerous calls on social media to ban popular streamers focusing on political topics (and accusations that Twitch is simply introducing this new classification category to avoid this), predictions that anti-Semitism will become more common under the protection of “sensitive content” ” and LGBTQ+ streamers asking if they will have to put warning labels on streams where they simply talk about their lives, experiences and identities.
Fr. I’m getting angry with convulsions. They literally call my existence, who I am and what I have been through, a “sensitive/political” topic. I deserve to be able to talk freely about my hysterectomy, reproductive health and freedom, and the fact that I am non-binary and pansexualNovember 1, 2024
“I had to have a hysterectomy at the age of 25 due to severely debilitating endometriosis, so reproductive health, rights and freedom is something I should be able to talk about freely because it’s part of who I am,” said PC streamer SerpentineCiCi Gracz. “I was also a supporter of the so-called Center for Reproductive Rights as a charity and in the past I have used Twitch to raise money for them.”
Some streamers also worry about the potential impact on revenue: advertisers can, and often do, avoid streams with content warning labels, regardless of the context in which they are used.
I have a strong feeling that this new category of content is going to miss the mark very much and that modifications, or perhaps a complete overhaul, will happen sooner rather than later. This has happened before: in December 2023 on Twitch relaxed its guidelines on sexual content to allow “artistic depictions of nudity” and then rolled back the change just two days later when I realized that “artistic” means different things to different people.
