Twitch ‘Removes’ New Ad Rules Following Outcry

Amazon-owned game streaming service Twitch said it was “removing” new advertising rules that had caused an outcry amongst gamers.

The move comes as other social media platforms including Twitter and Reddit bring in often unpopular measures designed to increase their revenues, with most Reddit discussion groups going dark on Monday in protest against charges introduced for popular third-party apps.

Twitch’s new rules would have prohibited ads displayed persistently in video streams, including video, display and audio ads.

Such ads are a major source of revenue for streamers.

Ad restrictions

The rules would also have restricted logos to only 3 percent of the screen size. Streamers, including charities, often rely on large logos.

Twitch generally pays creators 50 percent of funds from subscribers, with some receiving a 70-30 revenue split.

But the platform receives no revenues from embedded ads or donations.

Following protests by content creators, who said they were not consulted before the rules were rolled out, Twitch late last week apologised for “confusion” over the new rules and promised to rewrite them.

Yesterday, we released new Branded Content Guidelines that impacted your ability to work with sponsors to increase your income from streaming. These guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately.

— Twitch (@Twitch) June 7, 2023

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‘Bad for you’

A day later the company said in a statement that the new rules were “bad for you and bad for Twitch” and that it would be “removing them immediately”.

The section of its terms and conditions outlining what kinds of ads are permitted was removed from Twitch’s website.

“Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income. We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors – you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business,” the company said in a statement.

“We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch, and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”

Profits

Twitch didn’t say whether it still plans to make changes to its advertising rules.

Changes at social media platform Twitter have included banning third-party apps in an effort to increase the company’s direct access to viewers and the accompanying ad revenues.

The platform, which is privately held by Elon Musk, says users have not been driven away by the changes and that it has more users than ever at 250 million.

But rival Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, last week showed staff a Twitter rival it is developing that it said would be “sanely run”.