VTubers claim Twitch “hates” them amid new rules on ‘covering up’

Following the introduction of new rules about attire on Twitch, the VTubing community is up in arms, with some claiming the platform is deliberately targeting the niche unfairly.

VTubers use models to represent them on screen rather than a traditional camera setup, and these models are often costly to commission from artists.

Twitch’s rule change on October 7 required all models to be covered, specifically on the hips, noting that “hip coverage is often forgotten.”

The VTubing community highlighted to Twitch on social media that new models are costly and time-consuming to create, and it has caused issues for many, and they are now calling out the Amazon-owned platform.

VTuber NeonHarper was hit with a “sexual content warning” on October 8, and despite asking directly for the reason, was told only “I cannot tell you if your content was appropriate to broadcast.”

“If you’re not capable of telling us why we got an infraction what do you possibly expect us to do?” Harper asked in a post on X/Twitter.

There is growing sentiment that Twitch is targeting the VTuber community “unfairly”. A popular reply to an unrelated X post from Twitch asked: “Why do y’all hate vtubers?”

Others have joked that the only way they can be safe on Twitch is to have their entire body covered, or to only have a model that shows the character’s head.

Twitch has also been accused of not taking the same approach to non-VTuber streamers who don’t appear to follow the same attire rules.

“Twitch needs to make a statement on why IRL streamers can have an a** cam but vtubers have to be covered like Nuns, this is insanely hypocritical,” said X user SlyPerformer.

At the time of writing, Twitch has not responded to the backlash over their rule change affecting VTubers in particular.