Twitch CEO points to ‘mislabeled streams’ as biggest reason sexual content stays on site

Twitch’s oft-vocal chief executive officer, Dan Clancy, has claimed the reason why the algorithm is unable to pick up on all the sexual content on the streaming platform—and therefore ban it—is because the creators aren’t using the correct labeling.

The CEO’s declaration came after he appeared on Spanish Twitch star Rubius’ stream earlier this month. During the stream, he was showing off new Twitch features when his screen accidentally popped up with not-so-savory content. He laughed it off, before later explaining he’s had to manually find “offending clips” because the system hasn’t been pinging them—which has led to his algorithm offering up those kinds of suggestions.

He then expanded: Incorrect labels are how sexual content can bypass the algorithm designed to block them, meaning mislabelled streams are the biggest reason why any content like that accidentally stays on Twitch.

Clancy didn’t mention if Twitch was working on a way to solve the situation.

The increase in sexualized content on Twitch has become quite a problem, especially when streamers find unique ways to skirt Twitch’s content guidelines. This has included anything from the infamous swimming “meta” where streamers appeared in tubs and bathing clothes, to stars seemingly wearing no clothes and simply displaying censor bars. Although they might have been wearing clothes underneath these censor bars, the implied notion that they were naked went against Twitch’s guidelines.

Twitch has been dedicated to clearing out these forms of sexual content, but apparently any mislabelling can save creators from being detected by Twitch’s algorithm, especially if they don’t include required tags for mature content. They can keep getting away with this because there aren’t any harsh repercussions for not labeling their streams correctly. They do receive warnings if Twitch viewers or moderators have flagged their accounts, but the streamer’s accounts aren’t suspended, even after repeated offenses.

Mislabelling may be one reason why sexualized content keeps appearing on Twitch. However, until more affirmative actions are in place, these streamers will also find new and creative ways to continue skirting the content rules.