On December 18th, a clip from Twitch streamer firedancer went viral on the social network Twitter/X. The streamer used censorship bars to cover private parts of her body. The clip sparked an outcry on social media. It’s apparently a reference to the zigzag nature of Twitch’s rules on nudity. The topic has dominated the discussion on the former gaming platform for 3 years.
What was that clip?
We explain the background to the clip.
“The new Twitch meta”
This is the conflict over nudity on Twitch: For many years, before 2020, there were heated discussions about nudity on Twitch: Bans for nudity were more common at the time and it was not clear to the banned streamers exactly where Twitch drew the line between “This is artistic cosplay and okay” and “Someone is showing too much thigh and needs to be banned,” draws.
Female streamers said, for example: They were only banned because of their big breasts; if they had a different figure, the outfit they were wearing would be completely okay. But they would be banned on Twitch for an outfit that they could easily wear around town.
People wanted clear rules.
In 2020, Twitch actually issued these clear rules about the extent to which nudity is allowed on Twitch and what is prohibited. Roughly you can say:
However, this rule was quickly reduced to absurdity by streamers like Amouranth because they simply put a bathtub in the living room and said: “I bathe, so I can wear a bikini.”
As a result, there was frequent criticism of Twitch that they were “too lax in banning” nudity towards women:
Conflict over streamer causes Twitch to relax the rules
This was the latest development: A few days ago, Twitch suddenly allowed “artistic nudity” and also the targeted highlighting of breasts, buttocks or pelvis. According to Twitch, the rule change was made based on feedback from streamers.
The reason for the change was apparently this clip from streamer Morganpie: The clip suggested nudity without actually violating Twitch’s rules.
But this new regulation was immediately used to draw naked anime characters in the “Art” category, focusing primarily on the genitals (via gamestar).
Just a few days later, on December 15th, Twitch withdrew this rule change and said that they had gone “too far” (via twitch).
That was the clip: In this climate, Firedancer’s clip about the new “Twitch meta” appeared, which apparently wanted to test the limits of the current regulations.
Here you can see that the streamer Firedancer was actually wearing clothes under the censorship bars:
What are the reactions to the clip? The reactions to the clip on reddit are rather cynical and amused, but on Twitter in particular, many are rather hostile:
But while some streamers are currently testing the limits of Twitch, others are now using artificial intelligence and bots from which viewers can receive messages and photos. MMORPG streamer Asmongold recently responded to such an example in the stream:
Twitch streamer discovers how revealing women are now making money in a modern, creepy way