Photo Credit: ilgmyzin
More Twitch streamers will now appear on other platforms. The live streaming platform dropped the latest announcements and guidelines at the TwitchCon in Las Vegas, alongside updated safety-related policies to tackle doxxing and swatting.
Since August, Twitch users could push their content on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok, but the latest policy change opens streamers to competitor platforms — such as YouTube and Kick.
Streamers under contract with Twitch were earlier banned from concurrently streaming on other platforms. This led several streamers to jump ship, moving to YouTube and Kick. Streamers like xQc, Amouranth, and Nickmercs had signed major agreements with Kick earlier this year.
According to the new simulcasting guidelines, all competitor services are now open to streamers, ‘unless you have an agreement with Twitch that requires exclusivity.’
We’ve announced that you can simulcast on ANY live streaming service!
Check out our new guidelines and FAQ here: https://t.co/bTVF3hkpV9 #TwitchConVegas— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) October 20, 2023
Streamers must also ensure that ‘the Twitch user experience is not compromised’ — which means that their stream’s video quality on Twitch must match the quality of their simulcast on other platforms or services. This condition of maintaining users’ experience of the simulcast also includes streamers’ ‘engagement with the Twitch community, for example, via chat.’
Users also ‘should not provide links, or otherwise direct their community, to leave Twitch for your simulcast on other services.’
Lastly, streamers are barred from using ‘third-party services that combine activity from other platforms or services on your Twitch stream during your simulcast, such as merging chat or other features.’ Third-party services are allowed for personal use, and users can still place links to sites on the About section of their channels.
Following this update, users who had terminated their Partner agreement with Twitch for another service are now eligible to reinstate their partner status.
On other safety-related announcements, Twitch’s off-service conduct policy now officially covers doxxing and swatting.
Doxxing (publishing an individual’s name, address, or other personal information) and swatting (making a prank call to dispatch emergency services to someone’s home) have plagued the live-streaming community for a long time.
With this latest update in policy, Twitch will suspend or ban the account of any streamer or user doxxing or swatting any individual — whether it’s done on the platform or offline.
Moreover, streamers and mods will now be able to send anonymous warnings to users that don’t follow the rules. Offenders will be unable to type in the chat box without acknowledging the warning.
Even though many streamers had enforced an informal three-strike system for such offenses by chatters, this channel-level chat warning should make Twitch communities safer spaces for all users.
