Twitch expands misconduct policy to include other platforms

Ensuring that Twitch remains a safe and inclusive space for stream buffs, the platform is expanding its off-service conduct policy to punish threatening behaviours outside of Twitch.

Those who take to spreading hate online or trolling Twitter and Discord may soon find their indiscretions have landed them bans on Twitch – much like a certain ex US president last January.

The Amazon owned streaming giant has this week expanded its off-service conduct policy to clarify that from this point on accounts may be indefinitely suspended for harmful behaviours found on separate online networks.

Intended to root out the very worst types of misconduct from its servers, Twitch has recruited an anonymous third party law firm to pay extra attention to reported instances of sexual assault, extremist behaviour, and threats of violence across all the biggest social networks and forums.

You can find the full list of offences here.

In January, we began enforcing our updated Hateful Conduct and Harassment policy so we could better protect every person on Twitch.

Today, we want to share our plans for how we’ll handle incidents that happen off Twitch.

Read the blog here: https://t.co/vBnoY6nPau pic.twitter.com/KQX1ZBsRVg

— Twitch (@Twitch) April 7, 2021

Twitch is targeting evidence of what it calls ‘the most egregious types of physical and psychological harm’ within off-stream investigations, but unfortunately concedes that the updated policy won’t include less extreme forms of harassment or abuse just yet.

‘We have prioritized the most serious offenses that pose an immediate physical safety threat in order to ensure we are equipped to take action when these impact our community,’ stated Twitch in a new blog post.

The severity of issues will be scaled once reported to Twitch staff by users. Instances of bullying, intimidation, and intolerance will continue to be handled by the internal team – which has been given a boost in itself – while cases with the potential to incite harm or hate on a widespread scale will prompt third party intervention.