Twitch takes additional steps to punish “off-Twitch” user harassment

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Thomas Trutschel)

In a new set of guidelines posted Wednesday, livestreaming company Twitch said that it will start enforcing its policies against "hateful conduct and harassment [for actions] that occur off Twitch services." That means such conduct "directed at members of the Twitch community [on]... social media, other online services, or even offline" can result in Twitch bans or other consequences on the platform.

The focus of the new off-service conduct policy is on off-Twitch offenses that "pose a substantial safety risk to the Twitch community [and have] the greatest potential to harm our community," Twitch said. Those include terrorism, threats of violence, membership in hate groups, and sexual offenses, as listed by the policy.

Twitch says it will engage "a highly-regarded third-party investigative partner" to investigate such claims of off-Twitch conduct and act in cases where evidence is available and can be verified, such as through links, screenshots, or video that has been "confirmed by our third party investigator as authentic." If that law firm finds a "preponderance of evidence," then the situation will be forwarded to a law enforcement response team to "manage sensitive, confidential investigations and partner with law enforcement."

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