Hide this breast from me, which I cannot see! Twitch backtracks on its new rules

Twitch, the famous streaming platform, is already abandoning its reassessment of its content policy. “Artistic nudity” will no longer be tolerated in broadcasts.

We can say that Twitch’s change of direction will not last very long. Last Wednesday, the platform relaxed its rules relating to sexual content and nudity. This new content policy was put in place to once again highlight content focused on “artistic nudity”, which had been banned for a long time. Just afterward, Twitch reversed course by announcing: “ From now on, Twitch will no longer allow the depiction of nudity, whether real or fictional, in any medium “.

Affected content and community reactions

Initially, Twitch had announced the possible return of certain content in broadcasts, previously considered undesirable: erotic dances, stripteases, highlighting certain specific areas of the body (chest, buttocks, pelvic region) or representations (sculpted, animated or drawn). genital areas. An internal re-evaluation with the aim of supporting artistic freedom, as long as the content in question was correctly labeled on the site.

Two days later, Twitch backtracked by justifying itself in a press release, sharing the community’s reservations about this decision: “ We share these concerns (…) After reflection, we admit that we may have gone too far in our last modification. The digital representation of nudity introduces a unique problem: artificial intelligence is capable of creating images so realistic that it becomes difficult to differentiate between digital art and photography. “.

Technology and ethics

Some will find that Twitch is returning to its rather puritanical positions that we know. However, the debate raised regarding the emergence of AI-generated content, such as deepfakes for example, under the guise of art is a real technological-ethical dilemma. This new, more “relaxed” policy could have opened the door to various abuses.

After last week’s change, it appears that some users had already taken advantage of it to use fully nude avatars or feature nudity in their streams. Ultimately, who is Twitch really to judge whether these demonstrations were a form of artistic expression? A question that is far too complex, which the platform chose to brush aside by changing its mind quite quickly.

Source : The Verge, X.com