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Twitch is overhauling its Safety Advisory Council with a new, much bigger lineup of members consisting of content creators who already live stream on the platform. The Amazon-owned company confirmed the change to The Verge Thursday after CNBC reported that Twitch’s original Safety Advisory Council (SAC) was purged of its nine members, one of whose comments on voice chats in gaming spurred controversy years ago. “After working with many of the same core members for several years, we have brought in new council members to offer fresh, diverse perspectives,” Twitch trust and safety communications manager Elizabeth Busby tells The Verge. Twitch’s Safety Council will now consist of the 180 content creators listed as part of its Ambassador program, a massive expansion. It’s unclear whether any Twitch staff or outside consultants will also be members—or whether it will be largely run by streamers going forward. PCMag contacted Twitch for comment on whether any safety experts will be involved.“We’re excited to work with our global Twitch Ambassadors, all of whom are active on Twitch, know our safety work first hand, and have a range of experiences to pull from,” Busby says.Twitch has rolled out new safety features, though it’s unclear if any were initiated or inspired by its SAC. Last year, Twitch added a new “Shield Mode” safety feature, updated its ban and block tools, and hid mature-labeled streams from its homepage, to name a few of its biggest changes noted in a transparency report published Thursday. When Twitch first announced its Safety Advisory Council in 2020, gaming publication Kotaku dubbed the rollout a “disaster” because drama escalated online over Twitch councilmember Steph “FerociouslySteph” Loehr’s comments on in-game voice chat features. Notably, Loehr’s X/Twitter bio still includes her affiliation with Twitch’s SAC member at time of writing (PCMag reached out to Loehr for comment).
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More broadly, Loehr’s statements raised questions about inclusivity and discrimination, as women or individuals with unique voices are often harassed when they speak in games. The Twitch council’s founding goal is to address platform safety and tackle discrimination and bullying with new ideas and strategies. Some other streamers, however, didn’t like the approach.Since then, Twitch has continued to tell users that it’s the safest live-streaming platform and has argued that Kick, a rival site funded by gambling company Stake, isn’t as safe overall. (Kick has some of the same policies as Twitch). It’s also worth noting that like many other tech- and gaming-focused firms, Twitch recently made big staff cuts to better its financial position. Earlier this year, it laid off 35% of its employees. Meta also recently confirmed it’s making cuts to its Oversight Board, which investigates its handling of various content moderation and safety incidents.
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