Since updating its ‘approach to sexual content’ Wednesday, online live-streaming platform Twitch has seen a new, eye-popping trend among its content creators.
Following the streamer’s loosened restrictions on ‘artistic nudity,’ some of the platform’s users have been chasing viewer traffic with a new tease: simulated, full nudity with fake ‘censor bars.’
Twitch, which rode to success on the popularity of its live streams of video-game players, revised its policy on December 13 — after the platform’s controversial ban of popular new streamer and OnlyFans model Morgpie.
Morgpie was banned after an apparently topless live-feed fundraiser went viral on December 8, only to be restored after Twitch revised its guidelines last week.
Now, a host of other users are pushing the bounds of Twitch’s new policy permitting ‘artistic depictions of nudity,’ including body painting and sexualized cartoons.
Twitch is no stranger to boundary-pushing content, often employing risqué gimmicks that its users have taken to calling ‘metas,’ short for ‘most effective tactic available.’ The acronym first emerged from the realm of ‘massively multiplayer online’ (MMO) games like World of Warcraft
Clips from Twitch streamer and OnlyFans model Firedancer’s Twitch streams, where the model appeared to be nude based on the clever placement of large black ‘censor bars,’ spread across social media, garnering over 100,000 views in one day for the original video on her page
Twitch is no stranger to boundary-pushing content, often employing risqué gimmicks that its users have called ‘metas,’ short for ‘most effective tactic available.’
The ‘metas’ — an acronym lifted from the realm of ‘massively multiplayer online’ games like World of Warcraft — have come to include self-explanatory titillating content like the ‘hot tub meta’ trend of 2021 and the more baffling ‘fart meta.’
The new ‘topless meta’ and its faux-‘censor bar’ variations are just the latest strategy that some Twitch users have deployed to monetize their streaming content on the platform.
‘It is hilarious and shocking what black bars do to the imagination,’ Twitch streamer and OnlyFans model Firedancer posted to X after her own viral ‘nude’ appearance.
‘It is hilarious and shocking what black bars do to the imagination,’ Twitch streamer Firedancer posted to X after her own viral ‘nude’ appearance
While the tactic has surely drawn attention, some users voiced annoyance with Twitch’s confusing policies and marketing itself. ‘I’m just sick of them trying to have their cake and eat it too by advertising themselves as family-friendly,’ one user posted to Reddit
Clips from Firedancer’s Twitch streams, where the model appeared nude based on the clever placement of large black ‘censor bars,’ spread across social media, garnering over 100,000 views in one day for the original video on her page.
The video includes a moment where a glitch dropped the censor bars, revealing that Firedancer had been wearing a bra the whole time.
While the tactic undoubtedly drew attention, some users were annoyed with Twitch’s confusing policies and marketing.
‘Twitch either needs to embrace camgirls and make an adult section, or put an end to this clear softcore pornography,’ one user posted to Reddit.
‘I’m just sick of them trying to have their cake and eat it too by advertising themselves as family-friendly,’ they added.
The live stream was removed from the website shortly after it was filmed, but other users posted clips that are now featured on her Twitch page
‘I’m not anti-sex work or women showing their bodies,’ another user chimed in, ‘but Twitch ain’t the site for that.’
Others were more critical of Twitch for the perceived reactionary turn that led first to the ban of streamer Morgpie and then the new content guidelines.
The viral clip of Morgpie had been filmed as a live stream to raise money for the international nonprofit Doctors Without Borders.
While it is not yet public how much money Morgpie raised, the clip states that she at least surpassed her original fundraising goal of $1,800.
‘Morgpie was doing this stunt for charity,’ one user posted to X.
Twitch banned Morgpie from the website on December 11 and later unbanned her once the guidelines changed
‘She was planning on donating her ad revenue too, money which Twitch will just pocket if they decide to uphold the suspension,’ that user, who goes by Sunupu on the platform, continued.
‘Congrats, prudes, you just robbed a charity.’
Twitch banned Morgpie from the website on December 11 and later unbanned her once the guidelines changed.
Twitch’s new guidelines, published under the heading ‘Updating our Approach to Sexual Content and Content Classification Labels’ in a FAQ last week, hoped, first and foremost, to make its policies less ‘confusing’ for its streamers and viewers.
‘We want streamers to feel confident they understand our rules and viewers to feel confident they will get the experience they expect,’ the company said in its post.
‘The former Sexually Suggestive Content policy was out of line with industry standards and resulted in female-presenting streamers being disproportionately penalized,’ Twitch added.
With the new changes, Twitch streamers will be permitted to broadcast content that ‘deliberately highlight[s] breasts, buttocks or pelvic region,’ even when fully clothed,’ so long as the content is appropriately labeled.
Among the content now allowed, Twitch will permit performers on the platform to engage in body painting and strip teases that include ‘twerking, grinding, and pole dancing,’ so long as the content bears the ‘sexual themes’ label.
Here, too, the platform does have a limit, however: art of ‘fictionalized sexual acts or masturbation remain prohibited,’ the company said.
