Twitch takes one of the most controversial topics on the platform seriously

Twitch has announced the implementation of a new policy and a series of moderation updates to combat sexual harassment on its platform. The company has made its sexual harassment policy ‘more understandable,’ as detailed in a blog post, clearly describing the prohibited behaviors. Additionally, the moderation tools now allow streamers to more effectively filter inappropriate chat messages.

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Although it has made ‘virtually no changes to its sexual harassment policies,’ Twitch now better defines what it considers sexual harassment. This includes ‘non-physical sexual behaviors that make users feel uncomfortable, degraded, insecure, or discouraged from participating’ on the platform.

‘We prohibit unwanted comments, including comments made with emojis or emoticons about someone’s appearance or body, requests or insinuations of a sexual nature, sexual objectification, and negative statements or attacks related to the perception of people’s sexual behavior or activities, regardless of their gender,’ Twitch clarified. ‘We also do not tolerate, under any circumstances, the recording or sharing of non-consensual intimate images or videos, and we may report such content to the authorities.’

In addition, streamers who use AutoMod, Twitch’s autonomous moderation feature, can activate a new category that filters ‘chat messages that could be considered acts of sexual harassment.’ Like the previous categories of aggression and harassment, users can define how strict the moderation will be and decide whether to report the senders of the messages. Currently, this new AutoMod category is only available in English, but the company is working to include it in other languages.

These measures are being taken after the scandal involving popular streamer Dr Disrespect, who was banned from Twitch four years ago for using the Whisper function to send “inappropriate” messages to a minor. In addition, female gamers disproportionately face abuse and sexual harassment from men on the Internet; according to a survey by Bryter, two out of three women experience toxic or threatening behaviors, and more than 10% have received rape threats.

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