Twitch has unveiled its new plans to deal with streamers accused of harassment or incredibly severe offenses such as recruitment for terrorist organizations happening off-site.
On April 7, the Amazon-owned streaming platform revealed how it will be tackling behavior that happens off the site in a blog post.
Harassment on Twitch has been a complicated issue and one that the site has been addressing throughout 2021. Its updated harassment policy, which went into effect on January 26, for instance, went as far as to prohibit certain emote combinations that could be considered hate speech.
Now, the platform has outlined that there are two distinct categories that are considered when dealing with harassment and other more extreme offenses.
According to the blog post, when someone is harassed on and off Twitch, they will “take into account verifiable, off-service behaviors or statements that relate to an incident that took place on Twitch.”
“For example: if we’re reviewing a harassment report about an incident that happened live on stream, related or continued harassment on Twitter could be taken into account when reported to us,” they added, noting how this is currently the site’s policy.
The newer category, however, goes into actions that may pose a threat to Twitch even if they are completely off-site.
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These include, but are not limited to, deadly violence, terrorist activities or recruiting, leadership or membership of a known hate group, exploitation of children, and carrying out, or acting as an accomplice to non-consensual sexual activities.
“While this policy is new, we have taken action historically against serious, clear misconduct that took place off service, but until now, we didn’t have an approach that scaled,” Twitch stated. “For behaviors that take place off Twitch, we must rely more heavily on law enforcement and other services to share relevant evidence before we can move forward.”
Furthermore, the site is bringing in an experienced investigations law firm as a partner to assist with investigations. According to the platform, this partnership will allow them to “more thoroughly investigate and respond to reports of off-service misconduct.”
Twitch also says that it will have safeguards in play to deal with any false reports and will suspend those encouraging others to submit false accusations.
Additionally, Twitch says that it will not be taking action against any channel until an investigation is complete and they can confirm evidence of wrongdoing.
