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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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
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Shyprix commented
Content Labeling
"You are expected to accurately label your content to the best of your ability. When choosing a category or tag, please choose whichever best describes your content. Deliberate or extensive misuse of titles, tags, games/categories, or other metadata are prohibited."
o.O
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Thong_Thong commented
Using the "Vtuber" tag means a creator is using a virtual avatar to express themselves. There should be a very narrow interpretation for what is and isn't using a virtual avatar, and thus being qualified to use the "Vtuber" tag for a stream. Many Vtubers that are trying to grow are shadowed under the behemoths of Twitch such as Mizkif and xQc who intend to gain viewership by using the "Vtuber" tag, while not intending to use a virtual avatar at any time during their show.
This also undermines vtubers being a means for which creators with anxiety, or that aren't able-bodied, can express themselves freely behind that virtual avatar. Just like people misusing the "ADHD" tag, which is also very serious, there shouldn't be a subjectivity on "personal and creative identities"; if the person currently live has no intention of using a virtual avatar to express themselves, even if it's for a small portion of their show, then they would be misusing the tag.
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Tamashinoerufu commented
i mean, you wouldnt be happy if you order a hamburger at a restaurant and they gave you mac'n'cheese, so of course i wouldn't be happy if i was promised a vtuber and got some irl person just chatting, or was promised league and got valorant instead
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SDFRiver commented
"Vtuber" is a pretty narrowly defined tag, in my honest opinion.
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takoshrimp commented
this is just a question of respect and its pretty sad to see it is not really a priority for twich .
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imnotmonamegistus commented
the fact that non vtuber streamers are still abusing the tag despite this issue starting to come to light really bothers me.. no.. it's sickenning
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mrjohn316 commented
I’m honestly disgusted that nothing has been done about this yet. It is an immensely simple thing to fix enforce your own rules uniformly as would be being done already. The misuse of tags is directly harmful to the user experience and the development of talents fan base. It clearly does nothing but hurt twitch and it’s fans.
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Okibruez commented
Pretty straightforward situation.
People are using tags that don't apply to them, and being incredibly rude and hateful toward the community those tags are for. Twitch is unwilling to do anything about this so as to 'respect those creator's self-identity'.Well, I guess I'm going to start self-identifying as someone that doesn't use Twitch any more. Since most of my favorite streamers have started using Youtube more after voicing serious complaints about this site in the past it's no big loss to me.
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Otaku_samaaaa commented
Twitch, if you don't take care of this in a timely fashion you may find that you have regrets later. The more you put it off and shove it under a rug, the more you open yourself up to losing money. Think about it, 3 months from now, 4 months from now, etc, you may see another streaming service pop up that caters ONLY to vtubers, and if you don't get a handle on it and prove that vtubers are just as welcome and respected on your platform, those vtubers currently on your platform may start migrating. Vtubers as a whole aren't disappearing. The fanbase is growing. So the money you see coming in now for vtubers is also only going to grow. From a business standpoint you should want to protect that revenue, yes? Well consider yourself warned that as of now, "later this year" is not protecting that revenue.
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AlterSouji commented
To the Jetri dude below, all I've got to say to you is "Ooh, self burns! Those are rare!"
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TotallyNotJaytee commented
Disappointed but not surprised. There are no platforms on the internet exclusively catering to Vtuber creators and their audience.