Twitch apologizes amid branded content guidelines backlash

Dylan Horetski

  ❘   Published: 2023-06-06T20:52:03

  ❘   Updated: 2023-06-06T21:06:52

Twitch has responded to the backlash received following an update to their branded content guidelines, apologizing for the confusion in the process.

On June 6, 2023, Twitch sparked quite a bit of backlash after screenshots of their new branded content guidelines went viral across social media.

Many of the platform’s biggest creators responded, including Asmongold, Mizkif, and their group OTK as a whole.

Just hours later, Twitch responded to the backlash in a series of tweets, apologizing for creating confusion and frustration.

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“Today’s branded content policy update was overly broad. This created confusion and frustration, and we apologize for that,” said Twitch to start off its Twitter thread.

“We do not intend to limit streamers’ ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors, and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers earn revenue.”

The Amazon-owned company added: “We wanted to clarify our existing ads policy that was intended to prohibit third-party ad networks from selling burned-in video and display ads on Twitch, which is consistent with other services.

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“We missed the mark with the policy language and will rewrite the guidelines to be clearer. Thank you for sharing your concerns, and we appreciate the feedback. We’ll notify the community once we have updated the language.”

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Many streamers across the platform saw the future changes to be quite harmful to the finances of streamers on the platform, with Mizkif calling them out on Twitter.

The changes would also have a huge impact on esports tournaments, with many worried about the future of the industry if these changes were to go into effect as planned.

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They could also reduce the impact that charity streams have on raising money for those in need due to the limit on how big branded overlay items can be on streams.

We’ll have to wait to see Twitch’s revised version of the guidelines, but we’ll be sure to update you when they’re live.