Twitch introduces new depreciating strike program

Twitch is changing the way it enforces its community guidelines. In an announcement posted on its website, Twitch said that it will introduce a new enforcement strategy in which strikes for certain offenses will depreciate over time, users will receive more information regarding their strikes, and users will be able to take educational courses to reduce the severity of enforcement actions. In an interview with The Verge, Rob Lewington, Twitch's VP of safety operations, and Kristen Murdock, the director of safety risk and response, spoke about the new program and what it means for moderating communities on Twitch.

According to Lewington, safety is Twitch's highest priority. He said Twitch hosts over 105 million users per month with 1.3 trillion minutes of content viewed. But such enormous numbers, combined with Twitch's age and popularity as a livestream destination, have created unique challenges in how the platform punishes people who violate its rules.

Currently, when a streamer violates one of Twitch's community guidelines, they receive some kind of enforcement action like a warning or a suspension, which then counts against them in the form of a strike. After a certain number of strikes, that streamer's account can be suspended indefinitely. "We've had people on Twitch for a long time that have had enforcements in the past, but they don't expire over time," Lewington said. "[This current system] is punitive for folks who've been on Twitch for longer and that's not what we want to do."

In this new system, strikes for "low severity" offenses will expire after a certain amount of time. Though accidental nudity was given as one example, Twitch did not offer a comprehensive list of what the "low severity" offenses are nor how long it would take for them to expire. "That's still a work in progress," Lewington said. "We're still figuring out the exact timelines." He did, however, say that strikes for high-severity offenses - incidents relating to child safety, terrorism, or hateful conduct - will never depreciate.

In addition to expiring strikes, Twitch will now offer more information to users when a violation occurs. Starting next year, Twitch will provide the relevant chat message or clip to give context on why an enforcement action was taken. According to Lewington, providing this information will help people better understand what they did wrong while also giving them the tools they might need if they want to file an appeal.

The final part of Twitch's new enforcement strategy involves offering users educational courses when a violation occurs. As an example, Murdock described a situation in which a person who received a hateful conduct strike was able to reduce the length of their suspension because they took a relevant educational course and quiz.

Murdock said Twitch worked with the Anti-Defamation League and other outside experts to develop these courses and quizzes around subjects like hateful conduct, sexual content, and gambling. Their goal is to create consistent messaging for both streamers and moderators on what actions will constitute a violation.

Taken together, this new strategy represents a desire at Twitch to ensure its communities remain safe while allowing members who have made mistakes to learn and grow from their experience.