Twitch announced this week that it’s updating its username policies in an effort to better curb “hateful conduct and harassment” on the streaming platform. References to sexual activity and hard drugs will soon no longer be allowed, and any accounts that try to incorporate those into future names will not be able to do so. For those who currently have a name that violates the new policies, you’ll be forced to change your name before regaining full access to your account.
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The new policies were detailed in full over on Twitch’s landing page for all things related to safety on the platform. Twitch’s policies already forbid usernames that incorporate uses of hate speech, threats, and other clear violations of any platform’s guidelines, but it’ll soon also prevent people from using “References to sexual acts, arousal, fluids, or genitalia” as well as “References to hard drugs — excluding alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.”
If you’ve got a username that’s clearly out of line whether it references those things or not, Twitch said it’ll “continue to issue indefinite suspensions for names that are hateful, harassing, violent, or typically representative of malicious behavior.” For those who have a name that might need to be changed because it incorporates some of the things listed above in the new policy, you’ll have to think of a new one to continue using your Twitch account.
“If your existing username violates this new policy, but is not a clear violation of our wider Community Guidelines — your account will be flagged for reset and locked until the username is changed,” Twitch said. “We built a dedicated, self-serve name change tool allowing you to change your username while maintaining account history, subs, follows, and bits. Once you change your username, you can resume using the account with no strikes applied.”
Those who create new usernames trying to violate that updated policy will find themselves unable to do so, but Twitch acknowledged that the automated systems in place may not be able to catch every name that found a workaround. To help with that, Twitch asks that people continue to report names that violate the policies so that the potential offenders can be looked at.
These new policies will take effect on March 1st to give content creators and others in the community time to think of what their new name and branding might look like should they have to change things up soon.
