For a long time now, the Twitch community has felt that the streaming website lacks concrete guidance on how strictly the Terms of Service should be adhered to and enforced. On one hand, a controversial streamer like Amouranth allegedly bends the rules on sexual content frequently, then gets her account reinstated after accidentally exposing herself on camera, whereas another streamer by the name of Shift had their benign Spongebob SquarePants emote rejected for being overly “sexual.” These recent examples and more are prompting calls of Twitch ToS double standards from many.
Nowhere is that more prevalent than in this Reddit thread authored by u/CLX053, which points out that known Twitch employee and streamer on the Amazon-owned platform GeersArt was going against the ToS on sexual content. Geers hosted an art stream in which he worked on an NSFW image, depicting a nude woman who’s bare breasts are partially on display.
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Experiencing backlash for this isn’t too surprising when many have pointed out that the staffer stood in clear violation of the rules, yet faced none of the consequences that non-employees have for seemingly lesser breaches of the Twitch ToS. The content wasn’t overtly explicit (the nipples are covered, for example) in nature, so it’s possible that the livestream’s content might’ve been given a pass even without a member of staff attached, but this inconsistency with regards to which different employees manually allow/disallow what is/isn’t appropriate is where issues are raised.
The thread’s top comment pretty succinctly sums up the feeling in the room, so to speak, with u/BanjosRuleDude stating that “Twitch doesn’t have a real ToS. I’m convinced.” They continue to say that “if they do someone should sue their dumb**” due to the fact that they consider the Twitch ToS to be “subjective to the person involved in violating said ToS.” The litany of affirmative replies and 2.5k points (at the time of writing) attached to this post serve to illustrate that many not only agree with the sentiment, but also further believe that this is an issue that needs to be addressed ASAP.
Though it may be unlikely that GeersArt will face retroactive repercussions for his stream, perhaps he’ll avoid showcasing similar artworks on Twitch in the future. On an even grander scale, perhaps this latest in a long line of public outcries in relation to alleged Twitch ToS double standards will encourage the company to further clarify its stance on such matters.
