Twitch Finally Lets You Hide All That Smut

Amazon’s live streaming juggernaut Twitch.TV will finally let you hide all the smut from your home page. With new ways to disguise content of a lewd nature, Twitch aims to make the website less intimidating to new and casual users.

Currently, the Twitch homepage often displays lewd content such as hot tub streamers. For many, this is a negative user experience as the majority of users aren’t coming to the website for that content.

In a new update, Twitch is introducing new methods to hide content of an adult nature. Not only will you be able to filter out sexual content from the home page, but those who wish to keep it will also be able to blur that content to avoid seeing it at all times.

In a statement released on the Twitch Blog, VP of community products Jeremy Forrester said: "We believe Twitch should be a welcoming place for everyone, and recognise that content enjoyed by some may not be a good fit for others.”

“Our goal with these changes is to make it easier for you to have a Twitch experience that's right for you and to choose the communities that you want to be a part of,” they continued. “We recognise that everyone's viewing preferences differ, and you should have more control over what you encounter when you come to Twitch."

However, it seems that Twitch’s decision to hide lewd content may still have myriad issues as streamers find ways to circumvent barriers. Since the front page of Twitch results in massive views for any streamer, those producing lewd content will inevitably try to game the system to appear unblurred on the home page.

There’s also the issue of how Twitch decides which content is blurred and what’s not blurred. While Content Classification Labels were introduced for streamers to see properly identify lewd content, plenty of raunchier content creators decide to not use these labels to gain more views.

“Streamers don’t use [Content Classificstion Labels], because it prevents you from getting to the front page, and they want to be on the front page,” Twitch streamer Nacho_Choco told us. “Twitch will allow lewd content, but marking lewd content won’t get you that visibility, so the bot won’t work.”

“In the past we had changes to allow suggestive content on Twitch, but other streamers immediately twisted that to publish obscene adult content. We had a nice thing for two days. It would’ve been a nice opportunity for artists, but someone is always looking out to ruin it.”

With Twitch’s new barriers, a more user friendly experience would be introduced. However, it won’t stop those who look to trick the system.