Over the past few weeks, weâve seen and had many conversations about Hot Tub streams, and we want to address it candidly. The content brings up questions that are complex with few easy, clear answers. Weâre approaching it thoughtfully and respectfully, which is why weâve taken our time to address it publicly after a lot of internal deliberation. Given the nuances, this is going to be a long post but we wanted to explain in detail our thinking and approach, as well as next steps both in the short and long term.
Much of the conversation weâve seen has focused on the people who are streaming this and similar content, including assumptions about their motivations and intentions, and we want to make a few things clear: first and foremost, no one deserves to be harassed for the content they choose to stream, how they look, or who they are, and we will take action against anyone who perpetuates this kind of toxicity on our service. Second, while we have guidelines about sexually suggestive content, being found to be sexy by others is not against our rules, and Twitch will not take enforcement action against women, or anyone on our service, for their perceived attractiveness.
There has been confusion around whether streams from hot tubs are permissible under our current policies, and we understand why our rules as written have contributed to that confusion. Under our current Nudity & Attire and Sexually Suggestive Content policies, streamers may appear in swimwear in contextually appropriate situations (at the beach, in a hot tub, for example), and we allow creative expression like body writing and body painting, provided the streamer has appropriate coverage as outlined by our attire policy. Nudity or sexually explicit content (which we define as pornography, sex acts, and sexual services) are not allowed on Twitch.
Our intention with the Sexually Suggestive policy was to draw a line on content that is overtly or explicitly sexually suggestive, not to ban all content that could be viewed as sexually suggestiveâbut we acknowledge that our rules are not as clear as they could be. Prohibiting every form of content that could be interpreted as suggestive would also result in far more restrictions on the video games and premium content that we currently allow, especially considering the ways that female characters are sometimes objectified or presented in a sexualized manner.
Sexually suggestive contentâand where to draw the lineâis an area that is particularly complex to assess, as sexual suggestiveness is a spectrum that involves some degree of personal interpretation of where the line falls (as opposed to determining whether or not there is nudity). We will always aim to avoid being overly punitive based on assumptionsâwhen we have taken enforcement action on this content, weâve only done so in the case of a clear violation of our guidelines. To make the lines between what we consider to be overtly or explicitly sexually suggestive more clear, our team is planning to update our policies on sexually suggestive content in the coming months.
We also want to address questions from our creators about suspending advertising on their channels. On Twitch, brands get to decide where and when their ads appear. Today, they can target or avoid specific categories of content and flag channels that donât meet their standards. This means that Twitch, in rare cases, will suspend advertising on a channel at the advertisersâ request. We absolutely do not permit brands to use protected characteristics as a filter for advertising targeting or blocking. We recently suspended advertising on some channels that were flagged by the majority of our advertiser base and failed to notify them. Our creators rely on us, and we should have alerted affected streamers to this change before it happenedâit was a mistake not to do so. Weâre working with individual creators to address their specific situations and restore ads where appropriate.
We recognize that our diverse, global community has a broad range of interests and preferences, and not all of the content allowed on Twitch is relevant to everyone. We think itâs important that viewers have choice in determining the type of content that is suggested to them, and brands have the right to determine where their ads appear on the service. We are working to develop more robust controls for advertisers and viewers to enable them to control their experiences on our service.
Additionally, we need to provide creators with a better understanding of what âbrand safeâ means to advertisers outside of our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, and provide better ways to categorize their content. Theseâalong with updates to the sexually suggestive policyâare longer term solutions that will take time to build and implement.
In the immediate term, one of the challenges this situation has highlighted is the lack of specificity in the âJust Chattingâ category. Viewers can flag content as ânot interestedâ in order to remove specific channels or categories from their recommendations. However, due to the broad range of content in âJust Chatting,â and the fact that many creators stream in âJust Chattingâ for a portion of their streams, that is not an effective way to remove a specific subset of content, like creators streaming in pools or hot tubs.
Community and advertiser feedback made clear that we need to offer more ways to control the content thatâs recommended as well as where ads appear. So, weâre introducing a new category: Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches. If you have chosen swimwear that is allowed under the âSwim and Beachesâ contextual exception to our standard Nudity and Attire policy, you should stream into the Pools, Hot Tubs and Beaches category. Weâll be reaching out to creators with more details on how to use this category moving forward.
This is not intended to be our long-term solution to improve brand targeting capabilities and increase personalization in our recommendations. It does, however, solve a few issues for all audiences in the near term. Creators can continue to stream content that falls into this category as long as it doesnât violate our guidelines. Viewers can better avoid recommendations for content that they donât want to see, and those wishing to view this content will have an easier time finding it. And brands can either opt-in or -out of this category based on whether it aligns with their target audiences, like they can today with any other category.
The Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches category is live today. This article provides more information about what kind of content should be streamed to this category. We have a lot of work to do and itâs going to take time to implement all the changes weâve outlined. Weâll share updates on this work as we have them.
brownchicken on May 21st, 2021 at 20:06 UTC »
stretching meta incoming
why_does_it_seek_me on May 21st, 2021 at 18:58 UTC »
Biggest thing IMO:
(https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/pools-hottubs-beaches?language=en_US)
ichigosr5 on May 21st, 2021 at 18:53 UTC »
It looks like they are creating this category so that advertisers are able to opt out of having their ads play on streams that are under this new category.