Twitch Changing The Rules For "Artistic" Reasons Was Inevitable

I have to give Twitch some credit. I know, that’s rare, especially for me. This week’s update to the community guidelines for content classification labels is a positive change that provides clarity to the rules, which will lead to more equitable outcomes when it comes to enforcement. Gamers aren’t happy to see Twitch further giving in and allowing more adult content on the platform, but this was really the only choice Twitch had.

I also don’t think they’d be quite so mad if there wasn’t so much misinformation going around about the new policy. Articles like this one from Dexerto that pair the phrase “artistic nudity” with a photo of adult content creator Morpie blew up on social media this week, and while Morgpie’s ban was certainly the impetus for the new community guideline update, that’s not what Twitch means at all by artistic nudity. Here’s what the new rule says:

“Q: With the updates to the Sexual Content Policy, are artistic depictions of nudity allowed?

A: Content with a focus on fictionalized (drawn, animated, or sculpted) sexual body parts regardless of gender (such as doing nude figure drawing) are allowed with a Sexual Themes Label. However, fictionalized sexual acts or masturbation remain prohibited.”

Drawings, animations, sculptures, and other depictions of fictional nudity will be allowed on Twitch, provided they don’t depict sexual acts or masturbation. That doesn’t mean Morgpie or anyone else can show their bare breasts and call it an artistic depiction of nudity, which is the impression Dexerto and others are giving people. But also, Morgpie never actually showed her bare breasts in the first place, which is an important thing to remember.

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The clip that blew up and led to renewed interest in Twitch’s sexual content policies (not that it ever really goes away) was of the streamer’s face, her bare shoulders, and enough of her exposed breast to imply nudity. It’s impossible to know if she was topless or not, which under Twitch’s old, vague guidelines, may not be against the rules.

However, Morgpie’s stream is, without a doubt, sexual content. She’s an adult film actor, doing a sexually suggestive stream, in order to promote her other content on other platforms. That’s what people are mad about, and what many were hoping Twitch would rule against. I understand why there’s frustration that the new rules seem to be moving in the opposite direction, but there was really no other choice.

Twitch is no longer a platform strictly for gaming, it hasn’t been for a long time, and there’s no way it’s ever going back to that. I wouldn’t want it to either. It wouldn’t be such an incredible platform for creative expression if that was the case. We wouldn’t have international streamers sharing their lives around the world, we wouldn’t have Jerma doing incredible things like backyard carnival and turning his life into The Sims. There’d be no artists like Dave Ashby demonstrating their process for people, or Kitboga trolling gift scammers, or the infamous incognito Walmart stream. Twitch has only gotten better since it opened up to new kinds of content, but that also means it’s opened up to sex work.

It’s not as simple as just banning sexual content on Twitch. If it was, that would’ve happened a long time ago. It’s often said that Twitch knowingly allows sexual content because it generates a lot of money for the company and that’s all it cares about, but the reality is that it’s just not possible to enforce most rules about how people use their bodies, and every time it has tried it has led to disaster.

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When Twitch tried to keep a handle on every kind of sexual content, what we saw was inequitable outcomes for different streamers. Different mods interpreted the same stream in different ways, so the rules weren’t consistently enforced for everyone. Feminine-presenting streamers were held to a higher standard, and curvier women were more harshly punished simply because their bodies are perceived to be more sexual. Every attempt Twitch made to nail down the rules was met with new metas and streamers continually pushed the boundaries, exposing cracks in every rule Twitch tried to enforce. The hot tub meta exploited the rule that said swimsuits could only be worn in the pool, but how can Twitch write a clear and consistent rule against that? The Supreme Court of the United States couldn’t nail down obscenity any further than “I know it when I see it”, how can we expect Twitch to do better than that?

The new guidelines emphasize proper labeling of content so that those who don’t want to see sexual content on Twitch can easily avoid it. It won’t show up on the home page, and users can filter out the sexual content tag if they don’t want to see it. This isn’t going to stop people from being upset that sex workers exist on Twitch, but it’s the best case scenario here. The prohibition of sexual suggestive content was simply unenforcable, and the rules about clothing were too vague and difficult to follow. Nudity and sex are still not allowed, but popular dances, including twerking, grinding, and pole dancing are, provided they’re labeled as sexual content. If you don’t like it, Twitch is trying to make sure you never have to see it. This is the same standard we hold other platforms to. No one expects YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram to excise all sexual content, so why do we expect it from Twitch?

I know it’s a complex issue. I too have concerns about Twitch facilitating parasocial relationships between young men and online sex workers. But this is not something unique to Twitch. Young men have countless ways to lose themselves in online fantasies already, and the notion that Twitch is some kind of gateway is hardcore addiction is myopic and silly. I have not heard a strong argument for why sex workers do not ‘belong’ on Twitch that doesn’t boil down to purantical point of views about sex, and I don’t find there’s anything more inherently predatory or malicious about what someone like Morgpie or Amouranth does compared to xQc’s gambling streams, self-confessed political “propagandists” like Hasanabi, or whatever the hell Kai Cenat is doing.

Despite what you’ve read, Twitch has changed very little in the past week, and there is no ‘new direction’ other than clearer rules and more consistency for content creators. It may look like Twitch is giving up, but this is the most equitable outcome for everyone, minus those who just really don’t like women and will use any avenue available to persecute them. Frankly, I’m fine with those people feeling left out.

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