Twitch rescinds policy that allowed ‘artistic nudity’

Twitch has quickly taken back its policy update that permitted users to post sexual content as long as it was labeled. In another update, the company said it is not going to allow any depictions of real or fictional nudity on its streaming platform. After giving users the green light to post “artistic nudity,” Twitch says some streamers created content that violated policy.

The media streamed in response to the initial approval of sexually explicit content on Twitch was “met with community concern,” according to the update. The company said, “We have decided that we went too far with this change.”

While a huge part of the initial decision was to allow for the “digital depiction” of artistic nudity, the company clarified that digital depictions of sexual content is a concern when artificial intelligence can be used to develop realistic images and that it can be difficult to discern between what's been digitally produced and real photography.

Recently at TwitchCon in Las Vegas, the company introduced new moderation measures meant to keep inappropriate content out of stream chats. The issue of sexual abuse and inconsistent moderation policies through the site has been a recurring problem for the live-streaming platform. The company even dedicated a Safety Advisory Council in 2020 meant to tackle the site’s bad reputation for its moderation practices.

Twitch’s back and forth stance on the issue of sexually explicit content has enraged some users. @Saruei_, a user on X wrote, “I got banned wrongly under your new policy for drawing a nude character without any visible genitalia. This is your own responsibility for not thinking through before establishing a new TOS and it is incredibly unfair to a lot of artists who fell into the same situation as myself.” Another Twitch user @LuxDenizen took to X to complain, “Sucks for the artists who were actually following all of the rules. THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.”