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Twitch’s sexual content policy bars nudity. But it can’t curb implied nudity.
In response, the livestreaming company updated the “attire” portion of its community guidelines yesterday (Jan. 3) “to prohibit implied nudity while streaming on Twitch.”
The new policy states that streamers cannot be fully or partially nude and cannot imply full or partial nudity by covering their breasts or genitals with objects, censor bars or sheer clothing. All streamers must fully cover the area extending from the hips to the bottom of their pelvis and backside.
It further instructs streamers “who present as women” to “cover your nipples and do not expose underbust.” Cleavage is fair game as long as “it is clear that the streamer is wearing clothing.”
Twitch’s “topless” meta, briefly explained
The latest update was in response to a recent “topless” meta—essentially a trend in platform lingo—on Twitch in which streamers use censor bars or camera frames to suggest they’re partially or completely nude, as per Angela Hession, Twitch’s chief customer trust officer.
It’s the kind of thing that made OnlyFans model Morgpie—who was fully clothed in a tube top and jeans behind the scenes—go viral, get banned, get reinstated, and then get banned again, all within the last month. AsianBunnyX, part of the same controversial meta, was banned four times in 2023.
Why does implied nudity need to be tackled at all, anyway? The thumbnails of suggestive streams were visible to users, many of whom aren’t adults. In fact, more than a fifth of Twitch users identify themselves as being between the ages of 13 and 17.
“Our goal, with this and other recent changes, is to make Twitch a safe and welcoming place for all of the communities that call it home, improve the clarity of our policies, and ensure that people have the experience they expect when spending time on Twitch,” Hession wrote.
The company is now working on the ability to blur thumbnails for content with a Sexual Themes label, Hession disclosed. It’s also finding ways to allow a user to filter their Twitch viewing experience based upon their preferences for content labeled with Content Classification Labels (CCL).
Twitch’s tug-of-war with sexual content and women
The revamped sexual content policy that Twitch announced in mid-December allowed “artistic nudity” as long as the content was labeled correctly so it could be kept off the homepage. At the time, Hession admitted that the prior policy had “disproportionately penalized” women and claimed that this would level the playing field.
However, couple of days later, it rolled back the update, banning both real and fictional nudity after community backlash around hyperrealistic posts. “AI can be used to create realistic images, and it can be hard to distinguish between digital art and photography,” CEO Dan Clancy wrote in a blog post announcing the change to December version of the policy. Female creators believe that hate raids and a mass reporting campaign by dissenters (often male) led to Twitch’s change-of-heart.
Now, a part of the new attire rules specifically address women. A Twitch affiliate called out the glaring, sexist double standard for not prohibiting men’s nipples. “It makes NO SENSE that men can be shirtless on stream and it’s totally fine but if women do it and aren’t even VISIBLE it’s somehow a problem,” Ren_Nyx posted on X.
Replies to Twitch’s update on X also indicate worries about clothing guidelines being implemented in a discriminatory manner. These users are calling for the rules to apply to everyone uniformly rather than targeting smaller creators.
Quotable: Twitch streamers will find a way to push the limits
“I give it a week until someone finds a workaround.”
—virtual YouTuber Tomi the Bull replying to Twitch on X on Jan. 3.