Twitch streams about "political and sensitive issues" including "reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights" now require a label

UPDATE 5/11/24: Twitch has updated its controversial rules around labelling streams that focus on “political and sensitive issues”, after its earlier statement laying out new requirements raised eyebrows.

In an update posted last night, on the eve of the US presidential election, Twitch said it had “made some updates” to its “policy language to better clarify what needs a ‘Politics and Sensitive Social Issues’ Content Classification Label (CCL).”

Twitch previously described the kinds of “Sensitive Social Issues” that would warrant its warning label as including discussions about religion, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and immigration. Now, Twitch has said it wanted to make clear that labels would not apply if a streamer is discussing their “lived experience”, or if discussion of these topics isn’t the “focus” of the stream.

Why is Twitch so keen for streamers to label their broadcasts? The company says it wants both viewers and brands – in other words, companies who spend money to advertise on the platform – to have better visibility on what a streamer might discuss.