Twitch reversed course on its plans to add new more restrictive branded content guidelines for creators today after receiving backlash from the platform’s community.
After trying to do some light damage control with a post yesterday, the platform took a significantly stronger stance today calling its now-removed policy “bad for you and bad for Twitch.”
The new Branded Content Guidelines that Twitch added to its online archive of extensive policies yesterday included various restrictions on what sorts of paid partnership activations creators could do on the platform. This included limitations on brand signage and prohibiting certain categories of branding.
“Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income,” Twitch tweeted. “We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors—you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business.”
The policy drew a swift reaction from the public and nearly universal hate from creators, some of whom threatened leaving the platform. Massively popular MMO influencer Asmongold was among the streamers leading the charge. Not only did he say that he would seek out streaming deals elsewhere if the policy stayed, but he also posted to Twitter stating that the policy might even be worth boycotting Twitch all together.
In a reply to their own post to Twitter, Twitch posted that creators can find an updated version of the Branded Content Guidelines and provided a link to their website. The newly updated guidelines still have some restrictions on the types of branded content allowed, as some have noted already.
However, the limitations to burn-in video and audio have been removed as well as sizing requirements for branding. The decision has solicited numerous “thank you” replies from many top streamers, like Asmongold and Esfand from OTK.
