As Twitch has grown in popularity, it has strayed away from being solely a gaming platform and has begun to allow many different categories, including gambling, art, music, and a space to just chat and hang out. This has caused a mixture of opinions across the internet as some are all for variety and inclusion, whereas some want it to remain a platform just for streaming video games.
As the rules have been relaxed, people have pushed the boundaries on what is allowed, which has resulted in numerous changes to policies regarding nudity and other prohibited content. Following the ban of popular streamer Morgpie, Twitch has decided to relax its policies further which has angered some in the community.
In the most recent changes, ‘Artistic Nudity’ is now allowed if the streamer is using the Sexual Themes label. This includes content focused on fictionalized (drawn, animated, or sculpted) sexual body parts regardless of gender (such as doing nude figure drawing).
Body painting has been permitted on Twitch for some time now and the latest changes help to make the policies more consistent which will result in less penalties for streamers. This includes writing or painting on exposed breasts and buttocks regardless of gender.
Erotic dances such as disrobing and strip teases are now permitted on Twitch, as are sexual dances including twerking, grinding, and pole dancing, with only these being prohibited in an adult entertainment establishment, which streaming in will incur a ban.
Game nudity and mature games are covered on a case-by-case basis, with labels being necessary and covering most games and instances of nudity, such as in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Games with nudity as a core focus, such as Porno Studio Tycoon are still banned and the full list can be found here.
These changes come after Morgpie was banned from Twitch for streaming while seemingly being topless, with the camera being positioned to not show exposed breasts. However, following the ban, Morgpie did show she was wearing a top below what the camera was showing, but at the time implied nudity would still result in a ban. With these new changes, it is likely that Twitch will quickly reinstate Morgpie as her previous content will no longer be bannable.
Over the past few years, Twitch has begun to relax its sexual content policies following the rise of hot tub streams, popularized by content creators such as Amouranth. This seems to be the next step in female streamers pushing the boundaries of what is allowed on the platform. It will be interesting to see how far Twitch is willing to go with allowing adult content in the future.
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