From here on out, Twitch streamers can customize AutoMod to filter out messages that may be considered sexual harassment.
Twitch has made significant updates to its sexual harassment policy on Tuesday, July 23.
The Amazon-owned streaming platform has tweaked the definition of sexual harassment in the community guidelines to make it clearer and combat it more effectively.
On top of that, Twitch also updated its moderation tool AutoMod. From now on, Twitch streamers who use AutoMod on their channels can filter out chat messages that could be considered sexual harassment.
These changes come one month after the whole controversy surrounding Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm. A former Twitch employee revealed Dr Disrespect's contract with Twitch was terminated because he allegedly sexted with a minor via the platform's Whispers feature.
What does Twitch consider sexual harassment?
"We define sexual harassment to encompass non-physical behaviors of a sexual nature that cause users to feel uncomfortable, degraded, unsafe, or discouraged from participation," Twitch stated on July 23. "We prohibit unwanted comments–including comments made using emojis/emotes–regarding someone's appearance or body, sexual requests or advances, sexual objectification, and negative statements or attacks related to a person's perceived sexual behaviors or activities, regardless of their gender. We also do not tolerate the recording or sharing of non-consensual intimate images or videos under any circumstances, and may report such content to law enforcement."
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Twitch updates AutoMod to combat sexual harassment
If you're not familiar with AutoMod, it is a tool that identifies chat messages that may be inappropriate or offensive. The tool detects these messages and puts them for mod review, pending approval.
"This new category will provide an additional layer of protection, and can help to block those messages in the moment, before they show up in chat," Twitch added. "As with all AutoMod categories, you can customize how strict you’d like AutoMod to be when holding back messages, and streamers and mods can decide whether or not to take action on the messages that AutoMod holds."
This new AutoMod category will roll out today. However, it's only available in English to start.
That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more streaming news and updates.
