Twitch revert Artistic Nudity guidelines after going “too far”
TwitchAn update to Twitch’s terms of service allowed for “Artistic Nudity” where streamers could draw and present nudity as long as it was meant to be artistic in nature and not sexually explicit. Less than two days after the Community Guidelines update, Twitch has walked back those changes.
While Twitch has endured its fair share of ups and downs recently, the platform is still going strong as a massive force in both video game and IRL livestreaming. Artists have been flocking to the platform for years, and its grown far past its original scope of being a video game streaming platform.
As such, the terms of service have had to be continually updated to reflect what should and shouldn’t be allowed on the platform. Giving creators more freedom to express themselves is something that can be very positive for people trying to push their content forward and try new things.
However, Twitch’s recent change to allow artistic nudity on the platform has wreaked havoc on the art section of the site, with many of the streams becoming focused on explicit art. As a result, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has spoken on the matter and decided to revert the change.
Twitch CEO says they went “too far” with artistic nudity
Dan Clancy released a statement on Twitch’s behalf less than two days after the terms of service update went live. And, while he claims that some users were in violation of the new ToS when creating explicit artwork, he also pointed out some content that did follow these guidelines still raised concerns in the community.
As a result, Twitch have almost immediately walked back the ToS change.
“Upon reflection, we have decided that we went too far with this change.” Clancy explained. “Digital depictions of nudity present a unique challenge–AI can be used to create realistic images, and it can be hard to distinguish between digital art and photography.
“So, effective today, we are rolling back the artistic nudity changes. Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won’t be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium.”
While nudity that comes up within video games will still be allowed with certain titles as it was before, artistic nudity of any form is now banned. This includes both conventional art as well as things like nude body painting and other methods of artistic expression that may involve nudity.
Clancy’s statement on the matter explained that it’d take a few days for the actual Community Guidelines to be properly updated, but nudity is banned from the platform effective immediately and apologized for what’s been happening on Twitch over the past few days.
“While I wish we would have predicted this outcome, part of our job is to make adjustments that serve the community. I apologize for the confusion that this update has caused.”