Twitch Hot Tub Streams Now Have Own Official Category To "Control The Content"

Twitch has now instated an official category for those hot tub streams that have gotten the gamers riled up and what's next for content creation on the service.

Now, I'm not one to pass judgement on anyone's living choices, so if you've been under a rock for the last month, I'll ensure you're up to speed. A significant trend towards streamers dressed in swimwear and sitting in paddling pools was seen in the Just Chatting category on Twitch. A lot of these content creators were women and their streams involved casual chats, challenges, and minigames. Though this wasn't violating any of the policies of the platform, a proportion of people were upset over the attention that these women were gaining through their hot tub streams. "I'm gonna be honest, this hot tub meta is by far the most pathetic thing we've seen on Twitch in forever," said Twitch star Félix 'xQc' Lengyel. "What a sad reality. Please get this trash off the front page."

There have been some absolute crackers on Twitch over the years, like the Rainbow Six Siege player who casually chowed down on nachos in the middle of a game. Check out our compilation of hilarious moments below.

Twitch itself hasn't been transparent over what is and isn't acceptable on its platform, and it's led to ire building and building on either side of the debate. Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa was caught in the middle here as her channel with almost three million followers was suddenly demonetised with no notice from the company. Last night, Twitch set the record straight with an addition of a brand new category for the popular hot tub streams.

"We're approaching it thoughtfully and respectfully, which is why we've taken our time to address it publicly after a lot of internal deliberation," said Twitch in a post to its own blog. "We want to make a few things clear: first and foremost, no one deserves to be harassed for the content they choose to stream, how they look, or who they are, and we will take action against anyone who perpetuates this kind of toxicity on our service. Second, while we have guidelines about sexually suggestive content, being found to be sexy by others is not against our rules, and Twitch will not take enforcement action against women, or anyone on our service, for their perceived attractiveness."

It continued to delineate what counts under its Nudity & Attire and its Sexually Suggestive Content policies, which covered contextually appropriate situations like wearing swimwear in a hot tub or wearing minimal clothing for body painting. "Community and advertiser feedback made clear that we need to offer more ways to control the content that's recommended as well as where ads appear," explained Twitch. "So, we're introducing a new category: Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches." Moving forward, this is where you'll find these streams instead of the Just Chatting category.

Also, it expressed that these choices may be modified in the coming months as they are trialled on the platform, and as per conversations with streamers, the community, and advertisers. "Creators can continue to stream content that falls into this category as long as it doesn't violate our guidelines. Viewers can better avoid recommendations for content that they don't want to see, and those wishing to view this content will have an easier time finding it. And brands can either opt-in or -out of this category based on whether it aligns with their target audiences, like they can today with any other category," concluded the company.

Topics: News, Twitch