Livestream platform Twitch has again tightened its policy on nudity. From now on, streamers will no longer be allowed to ‘imply or suggest that they are partially or fully nude’. The platform relaxed its policy in December.
In a blog post says Twitch that it is making this change because streamers have recently started “using censor bars or other objects to hide their bodies or clothing, or positioning the camera in such a way that it gives the impression that the streamer is fully or partially nude.” The livestream platform writes that many streamers are not really naked, but that such content can ‘disrupt’ the experience on Twitch for many users.
Last December, Twitch relaxed its nudity policy, allowing such sexually suggestive content. However, users had to provide such streams with a ‘Sexual Themes’ label so that they do not appear on the front page. The site now states that potentially suggestive thumbnails are still visible when searching the stream categories and that many users search for content that way. The company therefore announces that it is working on an option to filter out streams with a certain label. It also wants to make a change that will automatically blur the thumbnails of streams with a Sexual Themes label.
In addition to sexually suggestive content, drawn nudity was also allowed as part of that relaxation, although the platform backtracked on this a few days later. Twitch wrote at the time that it had gone “too far” with the change, partly because realistic AI-generated images would make it difficult to distinguish between art and photography.