At the opening ceremony of TwitchCon 2024, Streaming service announces upcoming changes, advancements Its ban policy, that is, it will make it clearer what constitutes a violation of the platform’s terms of service. According to Twitch, the changes are “intended to increase the transparency of our enforcement and reduce the risk of streamers losing their livelihoods due to low-serious violations.” But that doesn’t mean willful, repeat offenders can cunningly get back on the platform, as the company “will continue to enforce suspensions, including indefinite suspensions for serious violations.”
While Twitch has been the dominant video game and variety streaming platform since its founding in 2011, multiple platforms have since emerged to directly respond to it (such as YouTube, Rumble, Kick, and even TikTok), some of which brand themselves A kind of anti-Twitch is a place where content creators want fewer restrictions on their behavior, and in many cases can be as openly hateful as they want. Conservatives like Steven Crowder, The Quartering, and Melonie Mac regularly stream on Rumble, A platform that claims to be “immune to cancel culture.”
But Mac still streams on Twitch, and she has been banned about seven times, most recently seemingly for saying a homophobic slur during a Bible reading livestream. “It’s become a monthly ritual now and I think it’s hilarious,” she said Posted on X (formerly Twitter) After the September 5 ban. She later returned to the platform.
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Twitch streamer Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff also often broadcasts on Kick. Banned from Twitch in June After using a transphobic slur. When he later returned to Twitch, Kolchev claimed he had no idea the slur was derogatory, saying, “They said it was like f**king black, I had no f**king idea.” A year ago, The controversial anchor’s skin is modeled after him call of Duty after he made anti-LGBTQ comments on Twitter.
In a follow-up email to Twitch, I asked about situations where someone knowingly violates the terms of service, and the company’s policy on reinstating (or not reinstating) those terms on the platform.
“For privacy reasons, we do not comment on specific channels. What we can say is that when we see violations of the rules, we enforce our community standards, and these rules apply to everyone,” Twitch’s one representative replied.
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“I think we’re probably over-punishing people by using the example of accidental nudity,” said Kristen Murdock, senior director of global risk and strategy at Twitch. “When we think about hateful conduct, harassment, sexual harassment, we’re actually not enforcing it enough. Or are we not punishing people as they should? So that’s one of the policies that we’re looking at and making sure that we’re asking, ‘Hey, where is the line here?
In the follow-up email above, I asked Murdoch for his suggestion that the platform might not be punitive enough when it comes to hateful conduct or sexual harassment. A Twitch representative issued this statement: “We want to make it clear that hateful behavior has no place on Twitch. That’s one of the reasons we’re introducing escalating strike consequences — to prevent repeated violations of our rules and to reinforce positive online Civil image. Repeated violations of the same rule may result in longer or indefinite suspension.
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