Twitch “ruined everything.” The Amazon-owned live streaming platform surprised everyone last Wednesday by announcing a big change to its content policy, one that many creators were calling for but few expected: the return of nudity to Twitch .
Less than 48 hours later, the company not only had to reverse course, but it also strengthened its total ban on nudity on their platform; During this short period of time, Twitch became a “lawless city” where anything seemed to go. And Twitch and creators have a lot to think about, because all indications are that both parties are somehow guilty.
Twitch seems to be aware that it could have done things better. Its CEO, Dan Clancy, admitted in a public letter that the changes “caused confusion,” including when dozens of creators were banned from the platform, in theory for doing exactly what the new rules allowed. But what really happened?
Goodbye to nudes on Twitch
It all started last Wednesday, when Twitch updated its content policy on “artistic nudes”; In other words, it’s not that the company is suddenly allowing pornography, but rather that it is responding to creators who feel restricted by the total ban on nudity. For example, previous rules covered educational content, non-pornographic adult content, and even certain video games that could not be streamed on Twitch.
Under the new rules, content creators could show everything from “erotic dances” to “enhanced breasts” to “drawn, animated or sculpted breasts and genitals.” An important detail is that all of this was only allowed if the show’s creator used appropriate labels so that content is only shown to users who searched for it and Twitch can display warnings and limit content to minors.
However, that is not what happened. In a mix of misinformation about what the new rules allow and an obvious attempt to gain subscribers and money, creators filled Twitch with erotic content (and very often, beyond eroticism); some didn’t label content as they should, and the general feeling was that suddenly anything was allowed.
Something that didn’t turn out to be true. Twitch moderators reacted belatedly, probably as confused as users by this sudden change, and began to kick out content creators and users. This caused panic and for hours it was unclear what was allowed on Twitch, leading to more misinformation and frustration among users.
Ultimately, the company made the only decision it could: return to the old rules. However, as an apology, she also lifted the suspension of many expelled creators. Dan Clancy also publicly apologized, saying he “wishes he had predicted” the outcome of the changes. From now on, Nudity, whether real or fictional, is completely prohibited on Twitch, and there is no mention of the possibility of his return one way or another; The only exception will be video games with adult content. It is obvious that the company’s hope is that these two days will be forgotten like a bad nightmare and everything will return to normal.
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