"Frequently using data community can’t see" - Twitch executive "busts myth" regarding streamer ban consistency on the platform

On the third day of TwitchCon 2022 San Diego, the livestreaming platform hosted a Patch Notes Live event. It featured the company's Chief Monetization Officer Mike Minton, Head of Product and Safety Officer Alison Huffman, and Chief Product Officer Tom Verrilli.

Patch Notes Live host and Twitch's Lead Community Producer, Zachary Ryan, wanted to know Alison Huffman's take on streamer ban consistency on the platform.

He enquired about how Twitch manages streamer bans and why they issue one content creator a longer ban than another. Alison Huffman "busted the myth" and said:

"Yeah, again, more myths. Busted! So we apply our rules very consistently. It's just frequently using data that the community can't see."

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Twitch's Head of Product and Safety Alison Huffman explains streamer ban consistency

At the 02:46 minute mark of the October 9 broadcast, Zachary Ryan put forward a question from the streaming community about how the platform issues suspension to content creators. He also asked if the platform applied the "rules unfairly":

"I know this isn't your team, but I think that the community would be interested to hear more about how Twitch gives one streamer a long suspension, but not another, who does the same thing. How does it seem like, Twitch applies the rules unfairly?"

Alison Huffman "busted the myth" by stating that the platform applies the rules very consistently and uses data that the community can't see. She further explained:

"And so there are frameworks that use things like, how much harm did this cause, or how many times has a streamer did it. If Mike (Minton) does one slip-up on stage, we can look past that. We can go, 'Okay, yup, he learned; he'll learn, he'll come back, he will use different words in the future.' But if you're up here and repeatedly doing that, we're going to go, 'My dude, get it together!'"

Timestamp: 02:46:54

Huffman emphasized that the rules for suspending content creators on the platform are very consistent, and that it "may look different" to the streaming community:

"And so, there are places where consequences; it may look different to the community, and I completely understand why that is frustrating, and why it can look inconsistent. But there are very consistent frameworks on the backend that handle all of this."

The Head of Product and Safety Officer added that she couldn't explain the workings of the backend framework, since "people would exploit" it:

"We can't explain exactly what those are, because people will exploit them. But we are working on ways that we can provide more clarity to the community on how we apply our community guidelines across dimensions."

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Fans react to the executive's statement

The TwitchCon 2022 clip was shared to the r/LivestreamFail subreddit and the conversation thread attracted more than 350 fan reactions. One Redditor was surprised to see the platform's executive use the phrase "myth busted":

Another Redditor stated that the things mentioned in the clip were "all a big joke":

Here are some more relevant fan reactions:

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Twitch's Chief Monetization Officer Mike Minton also discussed the controversial streamer payout system during the broadcast and claimed that the 50/50 revenue split was "part of the equation."

He added that the Community Gifting, Hype Trains, Ads Incentive Program, and other initiatives are part of a larger set of community tools.