Twitch is laying down stricter username policies to “curb harassment”

On Feb 10, the Streaming platform Twitch announced the expansion of its username policy to restrict more potentially offensive usernames. Twitch announced the change in policy in a post on their official website.

In the post, Twitch outlines the reasoning behind the changes in policy. Explaining that usernames are both your chat avatar and channel branding on the platform, Twitch states that they must be held to a high standard. It describes the reasoning as an effort to create “a diverse, inclusive global community on Twitch.” 

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The new Twitch name restrictions

While existing restrictions banned hate speech, threats of violence, and personally identifiable information, the new regulations will include: 

• References to sexual acts, arousal, fluids, genitalia
• References to hard drugs - excluding alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana

The post also outlined how these restrictions would be enforced.

• Existing names will be reset
• If it's not a clear violation, you’ll get a notification and will be able to change your name to avoid confusion
• If you create a new name, a “machine learning model” will flag it and prevent you from creating it

To give a chance for creators to change their names Twitch has explained they will delay the introduction of these restrictions to March 1, 2022. Twitch hopes this will give creators the least disruption to their existing content. 

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