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During the first episode of Twitch’s Let’s Chat program, Head of Twitch Community Productions Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham spoke about Twitch’s stance on “hot-tub streams.”
Hot-tub streamers have attracted a lot of attention from the Twitch community in recent weeks. Some female streamers have been hosting Just Chatting streams wearing swimsuits that viewers have branded as "sexually-suggestive."
The community’s stance on the matter appears to be that these hot-tub streams are obviously suggestive and therefore must be banned. After weeks of silence Twitch has now issued its first official statement on the matter.
Twitch responds to hot-tub streams, confirm they are not “sexually-suggestive”
On 29th April 2021, the first episode of Twitch’s Let’s Chat program was aired. The program was hosted by djWHEAT, popular esports commentator and the current Head of Twitch Community Productions. During the episode, some of the viewers had questions about the entire “hot-tub streams” controversy.
djWHEAT explained Twitch’s stance in the following manner:
“So, hot-tub meta. I think there’s a couple people in chat that is asking about the hot-tub meta and we are gonna talk about it. So, we understand at Twitch that this is getting a lot of attention from the community lately and we have been watching closely. Our nudity and attire policy does allow bathing suits in an appropriate context and hot-tubs do fall under that criteria. However, what has not changed is the sexually-suggestive and explicit content is not allowed under the guidelines, under the TOS and Twitch will take action when that is reported to us.”
djWHEAT also explained that Twitch is always keeping an eye out for sexually-suggestive material and is closely monitoring these “hot-tub” streams.
“So I understand that people are upset about some of the content that might be out there and I think there is two things I want to take away form this. First and foremost, the teams are watching this, they are looking at it. The nudity and attire policy you can go and review it, it does allow bathing suits in a proper context. Sexually-explicit and sexually-suggestive content is not okay and again, action will be taken if it’s reported to you.
As deduced by Sportskeeda previously, Twitch is not categorizing hot-tub streamers as sexually-suggestive on the simple premise that the streamers in question are wearing swimsuits/bathing suits. djWHEAT used the opportunity to explain two aspects.
“I wanna talk about two things. First of all, I think it is important for you to be able to control the content that you can see. Right, whether it is a hot-tub stream or a game you don’t particularly like or a creator you don’t necessarily fancy. Not everything appeals to every person and I understand that it makes a lot of sense. We as creators, there are things we love and things that we don’t love.”
djWHEAT then explained how Twitch users can go to their settings and block the content that they do not want to see. He explained that specific games and creators can be blocked on the platform. The Head of Twitch Community Productions accepted that this is not a solution to the issue, but explained that viewers should use the “Feedback” option to let Twitch know about their individual preferences.
For more information about Twitch’s feedback option, the above video can be watched. Twitch's response has received backlash on social media. Users have questioned the platform's approach and said that the majority of "hot-tub" streams are sexually-suggestive.
