Facebook Gaming introduces new tool to improve chat moderation

With the war between streaming platforms well underway, Facebook Gaming is arming itself with a little bit of inclusivity. 

In collaboration with the Fair Play Alliance, Facebook Gaming has established a set of guidelines that content creators and moderators can use as well as a toolkit to promote inclusivity on the platform and help moderate chat rooms. 

To start, the toolkit has launched with eight rules including some basic ideals like “be accepting,” “don’t criticize,” “keep it clean,” and “no profanity.” Additionally, moderators will be able to remove comments in chat in real time, ban viewers for poor etiquette, and have a special moderator dashboard.

Many of these features are ones that are already available on other platforms. But Facebook’s new implementation shows the platform’s willingness to make adjustments and improvements as it tries to close the gap on Twitch, the leading platform to livestream gaming. 

Facebook Gaming started in 2018, well after Twitch had already established a firm grasp on the market. But the platform has grown to the point that last month its streamers generated nearly 195 million hours watched. 

In comparison, Twitch had 882.6 million hours watched in December, according to Stream Hatchet data. Mixer had 27 million, while YouTube Gaming had 320 million.

Facebook Gaming has also dipped into the pool of influencers looking to capitalize on the open market for content creators between platforms, which started when Ninja moved to Mixer.

The platform most notably inked a contract with popular strategy-based gamer Disguised Toast at the end of last year. Toast is known for playing games like Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics.