Twitch announced on Tuesday that it is revamping its suspension policy to move away from its previous “all-or-nothing” punishment system. Until now, being temporarily suspended from Twitch has meant losing access to the platform entirely, including the ability to chat, watch streams while logged in, and access basic information. Now, the company implements two types of captioning: live streaming captioning and chat captioning.
The company points out that while its previous approach was easier to implement, its new targeted enforcement system means restrictions will match the specific crime committed.
If a user violates the Twitch Community Guidelines while live streaming, their account will be suspended from live streaming, and chat on their channel will be temporarily disabled. While a broadcast is suspended, a user can still watch broadcasts while logged in, chat on other channels, and access their user dashboard. Additionally, viewers will still be able to watch their existing clips and videos.
Likewise, if someone violates the company’s community guidelines in a chat, they will be suspended from the chat but will still be able to stream their own content or watch other streamers. Notably, users who receive a chat suspension can still chat in their own channel, but will be blocked from participating in chats on other streams.
“High-risk violations pose a greater risk to our community, so chat and streaming will be suspended simultaneously to prevent further damage,” Twitch explained in a blog post. “As it stands today, those who commit the most serious violations will receive an indefinite suspension and lose all access to Twitch. There is no place for serious violations on Twitch.”
Twitch is not changing the duration of the temporary suspension, as stream and chat suspensions will last anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days.
The company says that with each new violation, the length of the suspension will increase, and that an accumulation of multiple temporary suspensions could result in an indefinite suspension from Twitch.
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Twitch determines the severity of a breach by considering how much damage it is causing or is likely to cause. Harm is defined as any action that results in physical, emotional, social, or financial harm to a user or to Twitch.
The company is working on additional comment types that will be rolled out in future updates.
