Twitch Will Now Ban Those Who Frequently Spread “Harmful Misinformation”

Twitch announced this week some updated guidelines within its Spam, Scams and Malicious Conduct policies which will equate to bans for those who frequently share what’s deemed to be “harmful misinformation.” To help determine what’s harmful misinformation and what’s not quite at that level, Twitch said it’s partnered with “over a dozen researchers and experts” to better understand the spread of misinformation. Some specific criteria have also been laid out to govern situations in which someone should be banned.

The updated guidelines were shared in a post on the Twitch site where it discusses all things related to safety on the streaming platform. For those worried about their favorites streamers getting banned for making an off-handed comment that happened to not be true, Twitch reassured users that the new policies most likely won’t have effects on the majority of streamers and will instead target those whose “online presence is dedicated” to sharing misinformation frequently.

“Before we continue, we need to make one thing clear: this update will likely not impact you or the streamers you love on Twitch,” Twitch said. “Our goal is to prohibit individuals whose online presence is dedicated to spreading harmful, false information from using Twitch. We will not enforce against one-off statements containing misinformation.”

As for those who will be at risk of being banned, Twitch has established three different conditions which must be met before someone’s banned for spreading harmful information. Streamers must be persistent in their misinformation efforts, must be sharing information that’s “widely disproven and broadly shared,” and must be discussing “harmful misinformation topics” included but not limited to conspiracies which promote violence. It sounds like someone’s efforts would have to be pretty egregious to meet all of those ban requirements, so it seems like Twitch was accurate in saying that this likely won’t affect most of the streamers people frequently watch.

Twitch closed out its post by saying that harmful misinformation wasn’t exactly an epidemic on the platform right now but that it recognized how quickly that sort of thing can get out of hand.

“While harmful misinformation is not currently prevalent on Twitch, we understand that it can evolve very quickly, and will continue consulting with experts to ensure our approach to curbing its potential harm is effective—as we do with all of our safety policies at Twitch,” the post said.

Twitch also recently updated its guidelines pertaining to usernames which prompted many people to have to change their names.