Twitch CEO unbans “twerking” emotes in new guideline change

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has confirmed that “twerking” emotes will be allowed back on the platform as part of a new guideline change.

Amazon-owned Twitch has been trying to change some of its more controversial policies of late by bringing back previously permabanned streamers and making some adjustments to its community guidelines.

The most recent example of this comes in the form of ‘twerking’ emotes, which had previously been banned from the site – much to the dismay of content creators.

Twerking, a popular and subjective dance move, had been viewed by Twitch as too sexual in the past, resulting in streamers such as Alinity getting banned for shaking her behind on a broadcast.

Naturally, the ban further extended to emotes. In 2021, streamer ‘BigSyn’ called out Twitch after his animated ‘Twerk Butt’ emote was removed, while hot tub content was still allowed om the site.

Now, three years later, Dan Clancy is shaking things up and chatters can once again shake to their hearts’ content… in emote form, at least.

During a Twitch patch notes broadcast, Clancy explained that previously, the rules used to evaluate emotes were treated differently from other policies in the site’s community guidelines and admitted that this caused some confusion for streamers.

“We’re adjusting our approach and bringing our emote guidelines more in line with the rest of our community guidelines. So, in particular, emotes that feature shaking butts, commonly referred to as ‘twerking,’ are now permitted under our guidelines,” he revealed.

Clancy further added that he had been working closely with the Twitch team on this policy change. Emotes that feature nudity, drugs, politics, and sexual content, however, remain prohibited.

Twerking was banned on Twitch up until late in 2023 when the site implemented a series of wild updates to sexual content that allowed forms of “Artistic Nudity” and popular dances such as twerking.

However, the site soon learned this went too far and reverted most of these changes when streamers began to take advantage of them.

This recent adjustment to emotes comes just one month after Dan Clancy revealed his goals to improve the site’s ban system and give creators proper feedback on what is and isn’t allowed on Twitch.