Twitch clarifies its updated guidelines in new FAQ

Last month, Twitch announced that it would be updating its community guidelines in order to clarify its policies on harassment, hate speech and sexual content. But while they were initially set to go into effect on February 19th, Twitch decided to push that date back to March 5th in light of all of the questions it received over the new guidelines. At the time, Twitch said, "It's important [the guidelines] are clear to everyone and we need to better explain some sections, so we're pushing back enforcement to start March 5." It also said it was working on an updated FAQ regarding the guidelines, and today, Twitch released it.

The FAQ clarifies what constitutes hateful conduct and what Twitch streamers are expected to do about hateful or harassing comments in their chats. Twitch says that it expects streamers to "make a good faith effort to moderate their chat" and suggests using tools like AutoMod, a moderation team or third-party tools. "So long as you are not turning a blind eye to content or conduct that violates the Community Guidelines, you should feel confident that no punitive actions will be taken on your channel," says Twitch.

The platform also emphasizes that creators should do what they can to stop harassment in their community saying, "Twitch should not be used to incite, encourage, promote, facilitate or organize hateful conduct or harassment, whether on or off Twitch. We will suspend communities, organizations and individuals that do so." It also explained how and why it would be moderating off-Twitch conduct and provided an expanded description of what clothing it deems appropriate for streams.

You can check out Twitch's community guidelines here and the FAQ, including an explanatory video, here.