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As the world continues to evolve and change, so must platforms in order to stay in touch with the demands of its consumers. Following changes to its policy regarding hateful conduct and harassment last week, streaming platform Twitch is making sure everyone understands just what the platform is putting forward with its new rules. The ban on the Confederate flag, blackface, and unsolicited sexual comments are quite straightforward among its new regulations, but now Twitch will take things a step further. The platform will also consider the context of statements and actions before handing out judgements. The latest changes to the Twitch policy apply to the use of ‘simp’ and ‘incel’ as insults against someone’s sexual activity.
This clarification came about due to Twitch’s desire to help everyone understand its new policies for those using their live stream and chat services. With the changes taking effect in January, the more people understand the tweaks, the better. In an official livestream regarding the changes, Twitch COO Sara Clemens emphasized the new policy’s take on using certain words as insults. You can review the official VoD “Town Hall: Overview of the Policy and Enforcement,” for more information.
As part of the updated content policies, there is also now a new “Sexual Harassment” category to make things more clear. The new policy goes into detail on what is constituted as unacceptable behavior, rather than just lumping everything under the “Harassment” umbrella.
Protective measures
Twitch will be actively clamping down on actions such as:
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Unsolicited sexual advances towards another person.
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Unsolicited objectifying statements relating to the sexual body parts or practices of another person.
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Repeated comments related to another person’s perceived attractiveness after the target makes it clear to you that the behavior is unwanted.
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Making unsolicited statements in reference to performing graphic sexual acts on another person.
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Derogatory statements about another person’s perceived sexual practices or sexual morality.
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Degrading statements about a person’s sexual health.
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Attempting to coerce others into providing sexual content or favors through threats, bribes, or other inducements.
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Sharing unwanted and unsolicited links to nude or sexually provocative images or videos.
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Sharing or threatening to share private sexually suggestive or explicit content without permission of the person depicted.
Users need not worry too much. It only becomes a problem with Twitch if you are using words like “simp,” “incel,” or “virgin” as insults. While this is a positive change, not everyone is happy. Some users have expressed concern that there are more offensive terms and slurs that are not getting the same attention. However, Twitch does have its rules against hateful slurs to cover that as well.
Adopting a context-specific approach to things is definitely a move in the right direction. While the overall policy can still be quite vague in determining the nature of intent, it is to be expected. Once the policy takes effect in January, that will be the best time to judge. Hopefully, Twitch’s efforts will pay off and we all can have a better streaming experience.
Twitch isn’t the only gaming company thinking of ways to improve its user experience with more positive environments. Valve recently introduced a Steam chat filter help remove inappropriate or undesirable language.
