UPDATE: On Friday, Dec. 15, Twitch rescinded the policy allowing “artistic nudity.” Read the story: Twitch Reverses Policy Allowing ‘Artistic Nudity,’ Citing AI’s Ability to Create Realistic Images

EARLIER:

Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform popular among gamers, announced changes to its policies under which certain types of sexual content that were prohibited will now be allowed if appropriately labeled.

Under the new rules, “artistic” depictions — meaning they are drawn, animated or sculpted — of “fully exposed female-presenting breasts and/or genitals or buttocks regardless of gender” are now OK, if creators label the content as containing sexual themes. However, fictionalized sexual acts or masturbation remain prohibited.

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“There is a thriving artist community on Twitch, and this policy was overly punitive and did not reflect the impact of the content,” the company said in a blog post Wednesday.

To be clear, Twitch still does not permit streamers to be fully or partially nude. But it is now allowing content that “deliberately highlight[s] breasts, buttocks or pelvic region” as well as “body writing” and body painting on “female-presenting breasts and/or buttocks regardless of gender” with a Sexual Themes label. In addition, dances such as “twerking, grinding and pole dancing” are now allowed without a label.

Meanwhile, there’s no change to Twitch’s policy concerning games “featuring nudity, pornography, sex or sexual violence as a core focus or feature” — those remain entirely prohibited. For games in which nudity is not the core focus or feature, the Mature-Rated Games Content Classification label is sufficient for incidental nudity.

Angela Hession, Twitch’s chief customer trust officer, explained in a blog post that the livestreaming platform was making the updates after receiving “consistent feedback from streamers that our current policies around sexual content are confusing and that it can be difficult to know how their content will be interpreted based on these policies.”

Twitch launched Content Classification Labels (CCL) in June “in recognition that some content that is allowed on our service may not be suitable for all audiences,” according to Hession. “We believe that accurate content labeling is key to helping viewers get the experience they expect, and now that we can enable appropriate labeling of sexual content using CCLs we believe that some of the restrictions in our former policies are no longer required.”

When a Content Classification Label is applied by a creator, viewers must provide explicit consent before they can start watching a stream. Going forward, livestreams that are labeled as including Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; Gambling; and/or Sexual Themes will no longer be included in homepage recommendations shelves due to “the visual nature of those topics,” per Twitch.

According to Twitch, if streamers fail to use a Content Classification Label accurately, they will receive warnings and “the correct CCL will be applied by Twitch to the stream,” the company says. If streamers fail to apply the correct CCL repeatedly, a label will be temporarily locked onto the stream but it will not result in a suspension.

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