Twitch is striving for more clarity about why and how it enforces its policies. On Monday, the company said it is adding enforcement notes, which it describes as “additional explanations and examples within the Community Guidelines designed to make it easier to follow our rules.” These notes come after (and complement) the company’s recent promise that it would do a better job of telling rule-breakers why their accounts were suspended.
The company says enforcement notes will outline how its rules apply to the trends you see on the platform. For example, if a new trending topic violates one of Twitch’s policies, it will publish a note under that rule, clearly explaining which behaviors are off-limits and which are not. It will also publish new notes in response to data spikes, widespread community confusion, or trending discussions on social media.
Twitch has already added some enforcement notes to its Community Guidelines safety page. For example, one note states that selling activities that could cause harm (such as taking shots for membership) in exchange for money is prohibited under its “self-destructive behavior” rule. In addition, it states under “Sexual Content” that direct links to websites that primarily provide intimate content are not allowed on the platform. Under “Impersonation,” it states that if someone else is posing as you, you can report the impersonating stream to Twitch if it’s not eligible for DMCA takedown.
Twitch says its enforcement notes will not replace any existing methods of communication with users, such as blog posts or tweets. Instead, the company describes the notes as “the source of truth for all policy and enforcement updates.”
Right now, the easiest way to learn about enforcement notes is through a browser page search on the Community Guidelines page. However, Twitch says it will eventually add a visual symbol to indicate newcomers. It’s also working on a built-in search feature to make it easier to find notes without using Cmd-F or Ctrl-F.