Twitch has a diverse community, made up of a range of people streaming a variety of things. To better protect that community and foster a safe space, Twitch is updating its Hateful Conduct and Harassment Policy to make it clearer as to what's not tolerated on the platform.
Why Is Twitch Updating Its Policies?
As announced on the Twitch blog, Twitch is updating its Hateful Conduct and Harassment Policy and the changes will come into effect on January 22, 2021.
The changes have been designed to better protect the community. Twitch is sharing these changes ahead of time so that everyone has time to get acquainted with them and consider how it might impact their behavior.
In the blog post, Twitch acknowledges that women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, Black, Indigenous, and people of color experience a large amount of harassment and abuse on the platform (and online generally).
Twitch wants anyone to be able to safely and happily build a streaming community on its platform. It sees this harassment not only as unacceptable, but also a threat to its aims.
The policies have been updated to take a clearer stance against hate and harassment. It also gives clear examples of what falls into these categories so that you can understand how these policies will be applied in practice.
The changes come as a result of a months-long process with research from the community and industry experts. Twitch also viewed past cases to understand what has caused confusion and to ensure consistent enforcement.
How Have Twitch's Policies Changed?
Twitch's new Hateful Conduct and Harassment policies have been split into three sections: harassment, hateful conduct, and sexual harassment.
Even if the target of the harassment isn't hurt by the words, Twitch notes that others may still be impacted. Under the new policies, Twitch's moderators will look at the content of the statements or actions and won't just judge based on perceived intent.
This will be paired with indications of unwanted behavior, like channel time-outs, bans, or reports. It says this will help provide context to ensure people aren't punished for competitive banter that the community accepts.
Examples of behavior that is now expressly prohibited include:
- Encouraging people to DDoS, hack, dox, or swat someone.
- Raiding someone's social media profile outside of Twitch.
- Displaying the Confederate flag.
- Repeatedly commenting on someone's perceived attractiveness.
If you are a user of Twitch, whether as a creator or consumer, you should orientate yourself with the new policies to ensure you remain an upstanding member of the community.
