Twitch is working to be more clear about why and how we enforce our policies. The company announced Monday that it would add an enforcement memo. It says this is “additional explanations and examples within our Community Guidelines designed to make it easier to follow our rules.” The memo follows (and complements) the company’s recent promise to better communicate to rule violators why their accounts have been suspended.
The company said its enforcement memo outlines how its rules apply to trends seen on the platform. For example, if a new trending topic violates one of Twitch’s policies, we’ll publish a note based on those rules, making it clear exactly what behavior is and isn’t out of bounds. We also plan to publish new notes in response to data spikes we observe, widespread community disruption, or trends in social media discussions.
Twitch has already added some enforcement notes to its Community Guidelines Safety page. For example, one memo states that sales activities that could cause harm in exchange for money (such as taking photos for subscriptions) are prohibited under the “self-destructive conduct” rule. Additionally, under “Sexual Content,” it states that direct links to websites that primarily offer intimate content are not allowed on the platform. Under “Impersonation,” it says that if someone impersonates you, you can report the imitation stream to Twitch if it’s not eligible for DMCA takedown.
Twitch said the enforcement rules do not replace existing ways of communicating with users, such as blog posts and tweets. Instead, the company describes the memo as “a trusted source for all policy and enforcement updates.”
Currently, the easiest way to learn about enforcement memos is to search for the Community Guidelines page in your browser. However, Twitch says it will eventually add a visual symbol to indicate something new. We’re also working on a built-in search feature to make it easier to find notes without using Cmd-F or Ctrl-F.
