Twitch U-turn on topless meta means no nudity of any kind from now on

Streaming platform Twitch has changed its rules on sexual content for the second time this week, as the situation gets even more confusing.

Following the recent ban on streamers who made it look like they were topless, using deceptive camera angles, Twitch changed its policy to make it more clear what sexually suggestive content was and wasn’t allowed.

Instead of adding more restrictions to its policy, Twitch loosened its grip and allowed some forms of sexually suggestive content, including stripteases and twerking.

Now, however, less than two days later, the streaming platform’s CEO has apologised and completely reversed the decision.

Twitch boss Dan Clancy has published a blog about the reversal, where he says Twitch had to remove some content from its site after the policy change that took things too far, and that a community backlash made them change their minds entirely.

‘However, there also was a great deal of new content that was allowed under the updated policy. Much of the content created has been met with community concern. These are concerns we share. Upon reflection, we have decided that we went too far with this change.’

As a result there is now no nudity allowed on the platform, whether real, implied, or based on drawings or animations.

‘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. This restriction does not apply to Mature-rated games,’ Clancy says in his post.

The whole ordeal was sparked by streamer Morgpie and others, who pushed nudity rules to their fullest, when they went live appearing to be topless. Morgpie defended herself saying she was fully clothed, and that she was within Twitch’s terms and conditions.

Morgpie’s ban seems to have expired, or maybe she was unbanned once Twitch changed its rules the first time, and at time of writing is still unbanned.

Whatever happens next for Morgpie and co. and their ‘almost topless’ trend, and Twitch’s policy on sexually suggestive content, is anyone’s guess,

Clancy mentions that Twitch is pushing new updates that reflect this most recent change to its policy in his post, but part of the problem is that Twitch’s rules are often very ambiguous sounding and easy to misinterpret.