After a series of negative criticism from a majority of streamers, Twitch has finally announced the removal of the unpopular guidelines regarding their advertisement and branding policy. Apart from donations and subscriptions, sponsored or advertised streams are an important resource for the income of all streamers, both newcomers and established.

The new brand guidelines issued by Twitch on June 6th caused a huge controversy pointing to the restrictions and new policy changes regarding advertisements. Just two days after the announcement, Twitch again tweeted announcing the removal of problematic policies confirming the interest of Twitch to cooperate with their streamers.

Problems with the new Twitch policies

To understand the problems with the new brand-related guidelines, one needs to understand that Twitch defines branded content as any content produced by streamers featuring products or services based on an exchange of value. Simply, any content developer streaming for a paid sponsorship will be termed as branded content by Twitch.

In the new policy, Twitch restricted its streamers to insert direct advertisement-related videos and audio in their streams. Banner advertisements and hateful/illegal/malicious advertising content were banned from displaying in the streaming videos. Twitch also banned the advertisement of Political content, adult product advertisements, and financial services.  Additionally, on-stream brand overlays were given only 3% of the screen size.

Read more: “You Can Advertise Alcohol but Not Politics?”- Community Turns Furious Over Twitch’s New Branded Content Guidelines

Problems arose when streamers realized that these restrictions limit the possibility of charitable streams. Many streamers criticized the new policies stating that publishers, developers, and event organizers of esports rely on sponsorships as it is a free-to-watch platform of entertainment. Disabled streamers complained about the problems of low-vision viewers with 3% screen size rules on mobile screens.

Response from Twitch

After receiving enormous backlashes from streamers, Twitch has finally tweeted about the removal of problematic policies in the new brand-related guidelines-These guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately. 

The company has apologized for the complications created by the new branding policy guidelines- We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch, and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help in making this change. Twitch has also published its updated policy in the comment thread.

Streamers received it as a victory in their online activism against the restrictions of the new branding policy guidelines. The comment thread shows positive responses from the streaming community. It looks like Twitch is agreeing to mutually generate its revenue with the help of streamers. Whether it is the beginning of another clash or a positive journey toward mutual collaboration, depends on the future!

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