Summary
It’s a new week, which meansTwitchhas found another way to anger a large percentage of its users. This time, the anger is coming from its VTuber community, which is up in arms following the publication ofthe platform’s first set of “Enforcement Notes”. Twitch announced earlier this week that these notes are intended to provide clarifications and examples of behavior that could potentially violate the platform’s Community Guidelines.
It’s not a bad idea, and can potentially clear up bans that people could find unfair or confusing, but one clarification regarding the clothing that streamers can wear has irked VTubers across the platform. While this rule has been in effect for a while, Twitch has now clarified that the site’s policy on attire applies to VTubers as it does IRL streamers. All the expected body parts are covered under the policy, but it has now also been clarified that VTubers can face a ban if they don’t cover their hips.
Twitch Is Making VTubers Cover Their Hips
That alone has been enough to rile up a lot of VTubers, claiming that the constant changes to the rules on attire are costly for those that have to commission new outfits. However, the main brunt of the complaints have pointed out how lax the platform can be when it comes to regulating these policies for IRL streamers, with some claiming that the platform has been unfairly targeting VTubers for a while.
A lot of VTubers arealso complaining about how confusing these rules are. For example, VTubers have to cover up their hips while doing a general stream, but are allowed to show them while wearing “festival and beach wear” as long as it’s in the correct context and channels. Clothing is also not allowed to be slightly see-through and must be opaque.
In another rather bizarre exception, VTuber models that show off their hips are apparently fine and dandy when used in VRChat,a place that is arguably even raunchier than general VTuber streams(be warned, do not open that link at work). It’s all very inconsistent - some claiming deliberately so - and what makes matters worse is that these new clarifications have no examples for other VTubers to follow to see if their models are acceptable.
It’s all a little baffling, and kind of conservative of Twitch to be banning a part of the body that isn’t even inherently raunchy. It’s also worth noting that Twitch has hada rather strange history with its Sexual Content Policy in the past, attempting to control how its users act and dress on its platform, and with good reason most of the time. This has been seen as a step in the opposite direction though, so we’ll have to wait and see whether the backlash is big enough for Twitch to change course again.
