Twitch Officially Bans Blackface, Confederate Flags And Swastikas

Amazon’s live-streaming service, Twitch has announced that it is beefing up its policy against hateful images on its platform and adding a ban on the Confederate flag. The new rules will take effect for any content posted on or after January 22, 2021.

According to CNN, these changes are some of the most targeted and far-reaching social media guidelines ever issued by a major tech company.

Twitch had already banned hateful images, but this is the first time racially offensive images such as blackface, swastikas, and the Confederate flag have been specifically designated as out of bounds. The new language regarding their policy is also more explicit. This is not new, but the new guidelines will make the standard clearer for everyone,” the company wrote in a blog post.

In their announcement, Twitch acknowledged that “women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, unfortunately, continue to experience a disproportionate amount of harassment and abuse online, including on our service,” a post on its site read. The company added that this harassment hurts people’s chances of pursuing live streaming as a career.