Twitch tries to spin content guidelines change with apology

The Twitch public relations team has probably had a pretty rough day at work today.

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Hours after a horribly received change to its already unpopular ad policy, which led to massive outrage from small and large streamers alike, Twitch has said it was all a mistake and that the guidelines update was “overly broad” with a side of misguided “policy language.” But that’s not what I (or a ton of fans) think.

Today’s branded content policy update was overly broad. This created confusion and frustration, and we apologize for that.
— Twitch (@Twitch) June 6, 2023

When you roll out changes that bar all “burned-in” third-party ads and limit the size of brand logos to three percent of the screen, I don’t think the problem is the language used to announce such changes. But Twitch is claiming it is not trying to stop streamers from getting third-party sponsors for their broadcasts; it’s just trying to stop third-party ad networks. Uh-huh.

Twitch has new Branded Content Guidelines.

– On-stream logos are limited to 3% of screen size.
– Burned-in video Ads are NOT allowed.
– Burned-in Display Ads are NOT allowed.
– Burned-in Audio Ads are NOT allowed.#TwitchNews #TOSgg pic.twitter.com/QrlrQhGAbm
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) June 6, 2023

If that’s indeed true, it would fall somewhat in line with a policy YouTube, Twitch’s main competitor, already has in place. But YouTube has proven to be pretty lax in its enforcement of said policy, and to be honest, it’s just a bad look for Twitch anyways. The streaming giant is stepping on one proverbial rake after another when it has the opportunity to just stand still and not whack itself in the face with lawn tools.

Over the years, Twitch’s stance on gambling, the platform’s struggle to police sexually suggestive content, and streamers leaving for other sites for a variety of reasons have diminished the reputation of the Amazon-owned site. And upsetting your creators is a great way to compound some of those issues and possibly push them and their adoring fans to the welcoming arms of YouTube or maybe even the controversial Kick.

While I’m sure it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Amazon for Kick to grow since it uses Amazon’s services, losing potential popular streamers and viewers to Google-owned YouTube would probably not be so fantastic. But that is the risk Twitch runs if it continues to mess up and greenlight some “overly broad” policy changes.