Let's not let the community uservoices about this issue die. We WILL be heard by Twitch, one way or another!

Politics is inherent in everything we do. Picking and choosing who's politics are right and wrong is not the job of the platform, and in turn has led to a blantant attack on creators of color. People who are proud of their culture should not be demonetized because the platform is not from that culture. It's through diversity that this app has made such a massive impact on the culture, limiting the diversity to meet the grievances of a few white creators is objectively white supremacy.

Mmm, thank you Twitch for these disgusting measures! No thanks!

This is simply an attack on marginalized communities. Such a disgusting act cannot stand.

@Diana2112Gaming Unfortunately, LGBTQ+ people are, in fact, political now. That's the problem with this rule: because minorities' existence (particularly with regard to those who are Arab, Jewish, Latine, queer, black, or some combination thereof) is now political, the rule is inherently discriminatory.

Twitch being cowards. LGBTQIA+ people are not inherently political. Giving us "permission" to talk about our lived experiences without having to flag our stream is just SO magnanimous of them.

This is a super scary level of censorship, people shouldn't be afraid to talk about "politics" on stream (everything is political btw). Not only that, but it's implementation has been incredibly racist, automatically applying to people who have tags for the country they're from or ethnicity, preventing them from getting ad revenue. Twitch needs to reverse this racist, McCarthyist system.

Exactly right. The wrong people are getting demonetized because their very existence is perceived as "political" or "controversial". These people deserve better than this and you owe it to them. Shameful caving to coordinated internet smear campaigns waged by unemployed weirdos online

Doing the right thing can make you more money!

Since Amazon in the past has proudly celebrated LGBTQIA+, it'd be neat if you'd also do it when it counts. But then again in the past you also donated money against the Equality act, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you'd leave it purposfully vague so under the same rules minorities can be banned, hidden from algorithms and eliminated from all public life. Sigh.

Absolutely agree. To what extent to they consider it political? Do we have to go full reporter level, or is me talking about my life and safety as a trans person considered too political? It needs to go.

What the petition said pretty much. This is not ok.
Enforce the current existing policies properly instead.

I'm cancelling Twitch turbo and subs until this is fixed. Being demonetized because of where your family is from is just racist. Being demonetized because of who you are is abhorrent.

Agreeing with LittleMxCriptid. I only started streaming on Twitch last year, and my life as a trans person immigrating often means discussions about the issues I (and many in my community who watches my streams) face. Sometimes lengthy, in-depth discussions!

And my channel is about crafting. I make props and costumes, short films, stories, and games. I draw. I write. The only reason any part of my existence would be considered "sensitive" or political, is because nonsense like this and the people it caters to are obsessed with making it so. The solution is not isolating us, sequestering us and our lives and our language. (Not even getting into the potential impact on ads and livelihoods, which is considerable.)

Twitch is farther behind on this lesson than other apps in many ways. I was shocked to find that automods flag completely normal words like “gay” and “queer” and “trans,” as if those words are dirty, and not the people who might use them hatefully. 

Ridiculously, I can’t even put “Twink” in my bios on Twitch - like I do in a genuine (if tongue-in-cheek) way on every other social media I have - which tells me that nobody on this team even googled the word before being a complete weirdo about it. (Here’s a neon hint; Twink is not a sexual word! Automatically sexualizing queer people falls smack dab into one of the most dangerous types of discrimination; fetishization! This is a huge problem!)

My identity and my body is not a "sensitive topic" or an ideology. It is not a talking point. It is not a thought experiment. Before anything else, it is me. It is a whole type of person. Nothing supersedes that.

Creators generate the entire value of this site. You cannot have our art and our labor without the whole of us. I was hoping Twitch would get -better- on these issues, not worse. Now I’m wondering why I didn’t just start streaming on YouTube, where I already had/have an audience. 



With all due respect to Twitch, the ‘ideology’ behind this policy(?) can sit on a thumbtack and spin. 

Thank you.

The change to the Sensitive social issues policy, ostensibly to improve and clarify is still very unhelpful. Problematic examples have been removed and some language has been rearranged but the result is the same, an unclear policy that sets a vague and highly subjective bar of speaking about something "in a polarizing or inflammatory manner." By whose judgement is the content considered polarizing or inflammatory? The policy is too open-ended and open to interpretation to be considered safe, sane, or free of the likelihood to be abused. Since the last bulletpoint of the updated guidelines in particular is one that obviously cannot be written in a way in which guardrails are attached to prevent weaponization of Twitch Policies and Staff, the appropriate correction would be to remove it completely, and, if it really was added in regards to the safety of those marginalized by inflammatory speech, enhanced enforcement of EXISTING harassment policies for a change when people are reported for violating them by using "polarizing and inflammatory" language toward said marginalized groups would be a much better use of Twitch's time and resources. Stop trying to play the middle ground with your policies when all it's going to wind up doing is making enforcement an even more inconsistent experience.

Well said. Twitch added this tag to appeal to right-wing groups and will only hurt marginalized people further. Because of this new rule, has become easier to target, harass, and mass-report these pointed accounts. It is also disgraceful that they're adding a "sensitive subject" warning on accounts who are non white. That is blatant discrimination. Twitch can and should be better.

I don't see political labels on Call of Duty gamers. Very odd considering those games are overpriced American military propaganda . why aren't they tagged?

Agreed. This tag was put there to punish via advertiser pullout.

Twitch, admit it: adding this tag was a reaction to pressure from right-wing groups and now you have implemented a system that can be weaponized against streamers of marginalized backgrounds. It doesn’t matter how much you clarify, you have given tools to bullies and predators to actively hunt and find vulnerable streamers. This was not thought out. Rectify this now.

Wow, demonitising creators for their nationality, not cool