Twitch is changing rules targeting politics and “sensitive” social issues after widespread opposition, but streamers are still cautious

Late last week, Twitch dropped exactly the kind of announcement a company typically saves for the end of a week: Going forward, streamers would be required to label shows that include “discussions about elections,” “politics and sensitive social issues, civic integrity.” , war or military conflict, and civil rights,” as well as conversations about “legislation related to a sensitive social issue such as reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, or immigration.” The latter provision proved particularly unpopular. Twitch has since clarified some of the rules, although streamers continue to feel they are setting worrying precedents.

In the days following Twitch’s announcement on Friday, numerous streamers spoke out against using Twitch’s labeling system, which allows viewers to hide content with certain labels – making it less discoverable – and allows brands to ban labeled shows to exclude them from their advertising campaigns. Nearly 40,000 Twitch streamers and viewers have upvoted a post on Twitch’s official feedback page, calling on the company to remove the “sensitive social issue” bullet point from the rules.

“LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and reproductive rights are not “Sensitive social issues,” these are common sense issues where one side simply wants their freedoms preserved,” reads one Twitch user’s post. “The controversy is entirely about the other side of the argument [that] it’s about taking away these freedoms. Especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ people, the idea that discussing their very existence is political is complete nonsense.”

On Monday evening, Twitch blocked the post on the feedback page and clarified the rules.

“We want to be clear that you do not have to label your stream when talking about your lived experience,” Twitch wrote on Twitter. “We have also made it clear that a label is only required if discussion of the topics listed is the focus of the stream. Our goal here, as with everyone [content classification label]is to give viewers and brands more information about what’s happening in a particular stream so they can make an informed decision about what to watch and where to engage.”

Twitch also released a revised version of the rules with the aforementioned clarifications as well as a notable removal of the word “immigration.” The new bullet points contain slightly more specific wording such as “streams”. concentrated to discuss topics such as gender, race, sexuality or religion in a polarizing or inflammatory way” (emphasis ours).

So reading between the lines, Twitch’s goal here is to make it easier for brands to avoid politics-oriented streamers, just as it once did when the company created an entire category for pools, hot tubs, and beaches after advertisers got a lot A fuss was made about Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa and other hot tub streamers in 2021. Twitch has been unprofitable for quite some time and has made many unpopular changes, to follow a stream that it probably considers more important than the one it has the live version: revenue. This includes a significant focus on advertisements, closure work in Korea and several rounds of mass layoffs.

The specific context here is a bit more complicated: In October, Twitch faced criticism from Israeli media and pro-Israel content creators for accidentally blocking email verification in Israel and Palestine for a year, as well as a TwitchCon panel in which several streamers Other YouTubers of Arab descent rated who could say “Habibi,” an Arabic pet name – the top tier was “Arab” and the bottom tier was “Arab.” “Loves Sabra,” an objectively bad brand of hummus from a company with Israeli military connections.

Big names like YouTuber Ethan “H3H3” Klein claimed this represented blatant anti-Semitism, while streamers who took part in the panel – including Jewish Raffoulticket, the leaderboard’s creator – vehemently denied the allegations. Still, the Anti-Defamation League, a notorious Israeli supporter, intervened, prompting Twitch to suspend Frogan, considered the body’s leader, and the other streamers who participated for 30 days. This came after Asmongold handed down a two-week ban following more clearly racist abuse against Palestinians.

There are some notable connections here: Klein regularly podcasted with Twitch’s biggest political creator, Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker, until the two began to have verbal arguments over the Israeli genocide in Palestine. Piker was an outspoken opponent of Israel and – as he repeatedly emphasized in broadcasts – not The Jewish people have for years been the result of what the World Court deemed an apartheid state in the occupied Palestinian territories. He has been instrumental in encouraging younger generations to conclude that Israel is responsible for human rights abuses, despite years of propaganda linking anti-Israel sentiment with anti-Semitism – the latter obviously a problem but not necessarily linked to Israel.

Piker, whose streams and videos reach millions of viewers, rivaling traditional news networks in sheer numbers, is also partly responsible for politicians like Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embracing Twitch, starting with one Among us stream in 2020, peaking at nearly 500,000 concurrent viewers. This, as well as the Republican Party’s influencer-focused tactics, have clearly shaped the Harris campaign’s approach. In the last few months, Harris started a Twitch channel, Bernie Sanders learned what a Vtuber is, and AOC and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz streamed Crazy taxi to an enthusiastically receptive audience (who spammed Piker emotes in the chat at various points). Due to anti-hate speech rules that are generally better enforced than on other platforms (with some admittedly glaring exceptions) and a more left-leaning audience, there are few notable conservative political influencers on Twitch.

Frogan is Piker’s former moderator and member of his community, as well as someone Klein has gone after on several occasions. When Frogan and her staff were suspended following Klein’s continued outrage, Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres took up the matter, releasing a letter last week expressing “concern about Hasan Piker’s amplification of anti-Semitism on Twitch.” ominous conclusion that “no company in America – not even Twitch – is above congressional oversight.”

Additionally, Digiday published an article about a YouTuber-led campaign that contacted over 100 advertisers with evidence of alleged anti-Semitism on Twitch, including a clip in which Piker claimed that reports of mass rapes by Hamas members on October 7 were never confirmed (Piker was referring to a March 2024 UN report that acknowledged a lack of forensic evidence of sexual violence; the offending clip is from one stream, in which Piker nevertheless argued with a viewer that sexual violence likely occurred – the opposite of what the campaign and others like Torres have claimed – but also that none of it justifies the genocide of the Palestinians.)

Not long after Torres spoke out, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy released his own letter saying, “There is no place for racism, hate or harassment of any kind on Twitch, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.” Now here we are, and Twitch is suddenly moving in a similar direction to other platforms like Instagram, which by default suppresses content it deems political.

Some streamers fear that Twitch is giving in to outside pressure instead of working to solve real problems.

“I just think [Monday’s update to the politics rules] “Creates a lot more problems for them than it solves,” Bret “Cinemarxism” Hamilton, a documentary filmmaker and streamer who spent time with pro-Palestinian protesters outside TwitchCon who gathered in response to TwitchCon’s Chevron sponsorship deal, told Aftermath . “In order to enact and clarify further rules, they will always have to make decisions and take positions on what is and is not eligible, and as a result people will be outraged by the enforcement or lack of enforcement. I think the previous one [terms of service] Was really great and well executed. … They capitulate to malicious actors who have no real interest in justice or anti-racism; They just don’t like Hasan and want him banned.”

“I think the introduction of a separate category for policies to combat anti-Semitism is a flawed premise. Existing as a minority person, especially in a predominantly white male space, is a political act,” Austin “Gremloe” MacNamara, a left-wing politics streamer, told Aftermath. “If Twitch was serious about combating hate speech on the platform, the five banned Arab content creators would be the perfect people to talk to about it, considering they have all been begging Twitch to add it.” [Middle East and North Africa] referenced their Twitch census data, to no avail. It is cynical at best and cowardly at worst.”

Piker himself is also skeptical of the motives underlying last week’s events, telling NBC that clips cited by Torres and others as evidence of anti-Semitism were taken out of context. Piker isn’t entirely sure what to make of Torres’ actions, other than that it fits a pattern for the politician who recently tortured a college professor for mentioning “Israeli genocide against Palestinians” in class.

“I think it’s a really strange thing, especially for Ritchie Torres, to issue a takedown notice five or six days before a hugely significant election against a progressive content creator who is the biggest progressive voice not just on Twitch but in general. in North America,” Piker said during a Monday broadcast. “Very strange way of doing things.”