Community Guidelines FAQ Update

Hey Twitch Community,

Last month we announced updates to Twitch’s Community Guidelines. You asked some insightful questions about what impact the changes will have. As we approach March 5th, the date when enforcement begins, we want to give you answers so that you feel confident that you have a complete understanding of the updates.

What does Twitch consider hateful conduct?

Hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on the following characteristics, and is strictly prohibited:

• Race, ethnicity, or national origin

• Religion

• Sex, Gender, or Gender Identity

• Sexual Orientation

• Age

• Disability or Medical Condition

• Physical Characteristics

• Veteran Status

Twitch will consider a number of factors to determine the intent and context of any reported hateful conduct. You can read more on Twitch’s harassment and hateful conduct policies in our Learn More article.

What do I do about people being harassing or hateful in my chat while I’m offline or AFK?

We ask that streamers make a good faith effort to moderate their chat with tools like AutoMod, building a moderation team, and/or by utilizing the numerous third party tools available.

So long as you are not turning a blind eye to content or conduct that violates the Community Guidelines, you should feel confident that no punitive actions will be taken on your channel.

Learn more with our How to Manage Harassment in Chat help article.

What should I do about viewers exploiting elements of my stream like text-to-speech to harass, be hateful, or post sexual content?

As a streamer, you are responsible for the content on your stream. Twitch asks you to make a good faith effort to moderate interactive elements of your stream such as setting a word filter or a notification delay to give yourself a chance to moderate incoming notifications. Ultimately, you will have to decide what steps are right for your stream and your community’s behavior in order to abide by the Community Guidelines. Remember to temporarily disable or mute any unmoderated interactive elements such as text-to-speech if you step away from your computer.

To what extent am I responsible for my community?

Creators are role models and leaders of the communities they create or foster around them. Creators should consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; we ask that you make a good faith effort to quell any efforts from those in your community to harass others.

Twitch should not be used to incite, encourage, promote, facilitate, or organize hateful conduct or harassment, whether on or off Twitch. We will suspend communities, organizations, and individuals that do so.

Learn More with our article on Hateful Conduct & Harassment.

Why is Twitch moderating off-Twitch conduct?

We recognize that harassment against Twitch community members can sometimes originate from off-Twitch conduct. Our desire to moderate verifiable off-Twitch harassment stems from our belief that ignoring conduct when we are able to verify and attribute it to a Twitch account compromises one of our most important goals: every Twitch user can bring their whole authentic selves to the Twitch community without fear of harassment.

How is Twitch moderating off-Twitch conduct?

Reporters of harassment must submit links to evidence with their report.

The moderation team will only take action if:

• The links provided are verifiable

• The content can be directly tied to the reported Twitch user

• The target of harassment is another Twitch user, group of Twitch users, or Twitch employees

• The moderation team determines the conduct violates our policies

Twitch will not actively monitor other websites or services for violations of our Community Guidelines, nor will we be acting on off-Twitch content created prior to March 5, 2018.

Learn more about our policies on hateful conduct or harassment.

What clothing is appropriate for my stream?

Given the variety of content and activities creators engage in, an explicit dress code would be unreasonably restrictive. Streaming is a public activity that reaches a global audience of many ages and cultures, and as such we prohibit nudity and sexual conduct. When evaluating reports for sexual conduct, attire is just one factor we will use in making a determination on whether conduct is acceptable.

We recommend creators wear attire that would be publicly appropriate for the context, location, and activity they are broadcasting. For example, workout clothes would be appropriate for a fitness stream and a swimsuit would be appropriate for a stream from a public beach.

Learn more about guidelines on Nudity & Attire.

I’m an artist and I want to paint a nude portrait not intended to be sexual. Can I stream my nude figure drawing?

As we do not yet provide sufficient tools for viewers to limit their exposure to nudity and mature content, artistic and educational nudity are not allowed. We are working on ways to make this possible in the future.

What about activities such as body painting and dancing?

Body painting, dancing, and other creative activities that do not violate our policies are welcome on Twitch. If flagged as potential sexually suggestive content, we will consider the context and intent of the content to determine whether the reported conduct violates our policies.

Learn more about our policies on Suggestive Content.

What is the policy on retroactive enforcement of content on Twitch created prior to March 5, 2018? Am I expected to delete everything?

Starting March 5th, 2018, all content on the site is subject to the new guidelines. We expect creators to make a good faith effort to remove any hateful, harassing, and sexually suggestive content from their channel.

However, if reported, content that violates the new guidelines and that was created before the new guidelines come into effect will be removed without suspension, but we reserve the right to exercise discretion on severe violations. For information about how to review and delete individual Clips and VODs, check out their respective help.twitch.tv articles: How to Manage Clips & VOD on Twitch.