Intentional misuse of tags ie. Vtuber tag on non-Vtuber
There has been a recent rise in streamers misusing the tag system, most noticeably with non-Vtubers using the Vtuber tag. This makes discoverability more difficult for both streamers who are actually Vtubers, and viewers trying to use the tag system to find Vtubers. Even prominent streamers are misusing tags, so this behavior has been spreading. I'd like to ask Twitch staff to please enforce action on the misuse of tags to help the streamers and viewers who are using the tag system as intended. Banning streamers from using specific tags they have been caught and verified to be abusing them might be a helpful solution to consider.


Hi, thanks for flagging this and sharing your suggestion.
We share and understand your concerns about how the intentional, repeated misuse of tags can undermine the purpose of the tags product itself. Tags are an important discoverability feature for communities, and a powerful way for all Creators—but especially those that are underrepresented—to express their personal identity and creative vision for their content.
We also do not feel Twitch should be the judge of Creators’ personal or creative identity, so we typically only enforce against the misuse of tags when it is associated with other behavior that violates our Community Guidelines such as hateful conduct or harassment.
That said, as the VTuber community’s experience demonstrates, there are limitations to this approach and we are actively investigating additional steps we can take to protect and improve the integrity of the tags feature at scale, without infringing on good faith Creators’ personal choice to express themselves and define their content.
Our goal is to have more to share with you about the tags feature later this year.
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jayloadable commented
Complete honesty she should be banned as she was conducting hateful conduct and harassment on people who only asked her reasonable questions and a reasonable request
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Tsuyu_Natsuni commented
@theFattyFatty2x4 it seems that you honestly spite VTubers. I would recommend returning to daddy xQc and spam your bs there.
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theFattyFatty2x4 commented
are we still memeing on this? real talk though, how is it vtubers will have 10k twitter followers and 200 twitch followers? git gud kids. make better content and appreciate the fact that large streamers are shedding some light on your niche corner of the internet where everyone pretends to be someone else.
*edit
totally a real vTuber here and I vTube every stream. -
TheStarSibyl commented
Might as well leave twitch. They obviously don't care anymore. Got too big for their shoes.
Remember twitch. The bigger you are, the harder you fall. -
N3ykoNee commented
Let's consider leaving twitch at this point.
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mattguy17 commented
Twitch thinks with their ****, Not their brain
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Altariax4 commented
This is an all-too-familiar trend on many platforms. What is the point of creating a TOS and rule system if it can be blatantly ignored? Why bother setting guidelines when they can be overlooked because "we don't wanna hurt their feelings." In total honesty, hurting someone's feelings should be the last of your priorities as a platform when someone is CLEARLY and without a doubt disregarding rules THIS PLATFORM set in place.
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JessIsCringe commented
The response by the admin, dowski, is terrifying by the precedent it can set.
If I say I'm a musician, I should be making music, right? Following the response to it's most extreme interpretation, no, I should be drawing character art and say I'm a musician.
I'm all for challenging accepted concepts but I'll gladly draw a line in the sand when it comes to blatantly lying.
This is an issue that can effect everyone, too. If the rules aren't enforced now, bad actors will notice and keep pushing the envelope until Twitch staff puts their foot down.
I rather see them do it now so we don't get worst case scenarios.
We've seen creators and users on other platforms do just that. TikTokers pretending to have disassociative identity and reinforcing cartoonish and negative stereotypes of consciously switching personalities, YouTubers pretending to have life threatening conditions and saying they will die while running a giftcard giveaway scam for viewer engagement and pushing dangerous homeopathic ideas onto their fans, and infamous users on multiple platforms trying to redefine sexuality to include dangerous paraphilias into the LGBTQ banner because they were (and in some cases still are) protected because they claim it's an identity.
This may be paranoia on my part, people may say I'm using the slippery slope fallacy, but this has happened before on other platforms; don't let it happen on Twitch, draw the lines now so you don't need to later.
A VTuber is a creator who uses a virtual avatar in place of a facecam and animates it using motion capture and/or sound detection software. This is an artistic medium, not a piece of art, it's not open for interpretations like creative identity.
A painter paints paintings, a musician performs music, an author writes books, and a VTuber uses an avatar and software to animate it in real time.
Don't let loose interpretation open the door for bad actors to ruin tags for users who genuinely use and embrace the tags they attach to their streams, it helps no one and, if left to grow, hurts everyone.
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HarusukiVT commented
You know with how twitch is handling this, I think it's time to look in to and grow with one of their competitors instead. It's been blatantly obvious that twitch doesn't care what it's majority users want and only gives what doesn't affect their precious top 0.5% money makers.
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lucatiel_of_the_void commented
It's very simple, Twitch staff. Vtuber has a definition. A VTuber, or virtual YouTuber, is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics and real-time motion capture software or technology.
If the content creator who has been reported is not using a virtual avatar for a majority of their streams, then they are not a Vtuber. Start enforcing the rule, or you're going to lose users.
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iamacat_media commented
So people can just say they are a vtuber when they arent? Fix your tags
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Starvexia commented
Why does this vtuber look so realistic? Oh dang twitch needs to fix their site...
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Ember_457 commented
As stated in Twitch's own directory for all tags, the Vtuber tag is "For streams in which the streamer uses a virtual avatar", so this isn't really a matter of personal or creative identity, but more of the literal definition this very website provided. But if there's such a big issue with having to actually ban streamers for misusing the Vtuber tag, then perhaps just removing the ability to use the Vtuber tag for that streamer on repeated and confirmed infractions would be fine?
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TheLastShadow45 commented
The twitch staff response is a joke, it's clear they do not care at all and only care about keeping their money making toxic boy xQc for everyone to see. He is breaking ToS and this response basically is telling everyone that they don't enforce their rules on these kinds of people.
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Kazpikachu1 commented
I think they should punish streamers who misuse tags and blatantly abuse TOS. Especially bigger streamers who seem to be untouchable and who acknowledge that they can do almost anything since they are popular.
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YungMysteryMane commented
Twitch needs to actually take action with streamers who are just laying there with their ass in the air for hours and barely playing games. I don’t think I’ve seen a single one who isn’t (incorrectly) using a vtuber tag. Also there are people who get punished for significantly less serious issues but there was that one user who had a racist meltdown, calling Japanese culture “disgusting” and just being an absolute lunatic towards fellow twitch creators. She was still at it for days following. How is that acceptable? I’ve seen twitch mods swoop in within moments of an infraction but it feels like a lot of these cam girl streamers get a pass.
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Patepic commented
Twitch is 100% in the wrong here. Yes these people breaking TOS make you money but, that doesn't mean they should be doing so. I personally found 3 cam girls all with 300+ viewers (one is just a replayed video so it doesn't show up as rerun) just to show off their bodies, get clicks, and make a lot of money. This is extremely wrong! One of them even used a free VTuber model from the software, which the company doesn't allow for commercial use.
If you want people to stay, I suggest doing one or more of the following:
1. Ban people who are using the tag to get underaged people into their streams. These people are mainly ASMR streamers who already are breaking other TOS rules by being cam girls on the site. Not sure why this content is allowed if others have gotten banned for it in the past.
2. Change how tags work. We all know Twitch is either reworking tags or gonna remove them all together. My suggestion is to make the vtuber tag work like a language tag and that no one can apply it but they have to have the criteria in order for it to show up. The criteria I'm talking about is something about the person being a vtuber in the title, vods, and/or about section.
3. Ban/warn streamers using the tag without models. While banning everyone would lead to the platforms end, warning everyone using the tag is the best option without killing off the platform. Banning should only be enforced if the person is breaking other rules or continues to use the tag after the warning.
Twitch needs to do better. I personally have no idea why only the smaller streamers are speaking out over this. The biggest vtubers are already big and don't care about the situation which is mind blowing. If one of them does speak out, maybe Twitch would enforce their TOS better.
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SuccuVamp_Anna commented
There's legit cam girls on Twitch abusing the tag, who only use the tag to get clicks from people looking for VTubers to show off their body, I feel this is the wrong platform for that type of content.
By definition VTubing is using an Avatar either 3d or 2d, animated or not. Not exposing your face to the world the entire stream.
My only reasoning for this is Twitch doesn't take action on this because of all the revenue they get for this. How much longer does this have to go on till mainstream media gets word of people abusing the tags to rope in minors pretending to be older than they are to look at what some consider to be softcore ***********? How much more does this have to go for advertisers to pull out because of bad publicity?
Think of the whole picture here! -
DragonMomToxic commented
I keep coming back to this in hopes that something will change, that Twitch would actually take action but I suppose having such hopes are useless. The worst part about a lot of these people who are abusing the tag is that if they are doing things like the s*xual ASMR streams or as it has been said Softcore ***********, they usually do NOT mark their streams as 18+ which is dangerous.
I'm pretty sure Twitch would love it if a minor just so happened to stumble upon a 'Vtuber' who is deep throating their mic, moaning suggestively and essentially lewding it up on stream. Twitch isn't 18+, you have to be 13+ to register. Which means there are -plenty- of younger viewers at risk of seeing these things.
As people have said, by definition Vtubers and Vtubing is someone using an Avatar (3D, 2D or PNG, etc.) and it is not these people who are actively abusing the tag and also shouting out rather disgusting things about the community as a whole. Honestly, if our reports in regards to the tag abuse are ignored then we can just send in more reports for the other things that these people have done which not only includes their sexual content but also the harassment and hateful speech that they have done during streams among many, many other things I'm sure. Maybe flooding the reports even harder, reporting every TOS violation might finally get some attention.
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Chrypsis commented
It doesnt take a lot of investigation to look at the vtuber tag and see who is and isnt using it right, its literally in front of your eyes