Welcome, curious reader! Today, we’re delving into the world of Twitch.com’s adult policy controversies. If you’re unfamiliar with Twitch, it’s a bustling online platform known for live-streaming.
Twitch is no stranger to controversy when it comes to their adult policies and how they’ve chosen to handle certain situations. As the world’s most popular game streaming site, they’re in a difficult position regarding what their streamers are and are not allowed to show. They want to have a family friendly appeal to get them into as many homes as possible. They also want viewers to head to their platform to see the latest and biggest AAA games as soon as they come out. Sometimes those two desires stand against each other. Here’s a history of Twitch’s adult policy controversies.
History of Twitch
Before we get into the controversies, we have to talk about the history of Twitch itself. It’s gone through many changes and has been evolving and growing for years. It was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, but it wasn’t known as Twitch back them. It was called Justin.tv and had many different content categories. Justin and Emmett were both recent Yale graduates who watched the gaming content on their site grow at a much faster rate than anything else they had. This led them to spin off the category into its own IP, TwitchTV, in 2011. The name is derived from twitch gameplay, which is designed to test the player’s response time, such as FPS and fighting games. This led to Amazon acquiring Twitch Interactive for close to a billion dollars in 2014. Since that time, they’ve added new features, such as cheering and chat moderation. Twitch itself has gone on to acquire its own subsidiaries, like GoodGame Agency and Curse LLC. Moving forward they’ve continued on and have servers all around the world to stream their content without buffering or delays, but their their adult policies have gone through several changes.
Adults Only Content
At its most basic level, Twitch does not allow adult content to be streamed on its platform. Thise is defined as games that have received an Adult Only, or AO, rating in the United States. These ratings are given out by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB. That means that ratings received in other countries or regions are completely irrelevant. It also bans any game that has gratuitous violence or overtly sexual content. It’s also banned specific types of games from its platform due to their inclusion of mature content and nudity. One of the most well-known games on the banned list is BMX XXX. This 2002 console release allows players to create topless female BMX riders, as well as containing sexual humor and real-life footage of strippers. Eroge visual novels are also outright banned by Twitch, including Yandere Simulator. This game is mentioned in particular because its creator, YandereDev, has criticized Twitch for its decision. They’ve correctly stated that, although Twitch has banned their studio, they’ve chosen not to ban AAA games with sexual and violent content, such as Mortal Kombat X, The Witcher 3, and Grand Theft Auto. This perceived double standard is something that’s stayed with the platform ever since.
Artifact
One of the biggest controversies to hit Twitch came in 2019 with the release of a game titled Artifact. This game is known for how quickly it lost its audience with its release taking place in November of 2018. By May of 2019, the majority of its audience was gone and the viewership for streamers playing it on Twitch dropped to almost zero. This became a running joke among gamers and streamers with lots of them using their Artifact streaming channels to play other content. The overarching joke was that these streamers claimed they were simply playing other content while they were waiting to be matched on the game’s servers. Most of this included unrelated content like League of Legends play and animal videos, but mature content was quick to follow. Many streamers chose to stream copyrighted movies, Nazi propaganda, and pornography. One streamer also chose to stream video from the Christchurch Mosque Shooting. This led Twitch to delete that user and temporarily ban new accounts from streaming. In June of 2019, Twitch sued one hundred streamers, accusing them of trademark infringement, fraud, unlawful use of its service, and breach of contract.
Hot Tubs and Yoga
2021 saw yet more adult controversy at Twitch. The platform took steps to ban some of their bigger channels after they found out the streamers were broadcasting from hot tubs and in bikinis. While clearly being done as a way to sexually entice their viewers, Twitch went on to state that they weren’t discriminating against women with their bans. They were simply banning content that they say was “not advertiser friendly” and sexually suggestive. This was followed up by Twitch’s decision to also ban users that performed yoga while making ASMR sounds for their viewers. While not overtly adult, they labeled it as something approaching sexual content.
Fictionalized Nudity
Twitch enacted a new policy in December of 2023 that allowed streamers to show fictionalized nudity on their channels. This included nudity in games, as long as there was no real nudity at all. This led to backlash against the platform, from both streamers and viewers, leading them to reverse their decision. Their CEO stated that being able to distinguish between fictionalized nudity and real nudity was too challenging for them. Now fictionalized nudity is outright banned on the platform and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Twitch and Controversy
Twitch is no stranger to controversy and this history highlights their major bouts with it. It all revolves around adult policies and how the platform allows them to be streamed. While it’s easy to understand why all nudity is banned on Twitch, things get more complicated when it comes to other adult content and sexual situations. AAA games like Grand Theft Auto are allowed to be streamed, even though it’s filled with sexual references and adult situations. Smaller games, however, are banned because they don’t seem to bring in the viewers that a AAA title can bring in.