Twitch Angers Streamers With New Ad Rules, Immediately Apologizes

thegamer.com:

You'd think with how uncomfortable Twitch probably is with rival streaming platform Kick snapping at its heels that it would do its best not to anger the big content creators it has left. However, streamers are more fed up with the platform than ever, and some new changes to its ad rules are causing many to threaten to leave Twitch for good should they go ahead.

To simplify a rather complex topic, Twitch has changed how its users can go about sponsoring their own content. With these new rules, on-stream logos are limited to 3 percent of the screen size, while burned-in video, display, and audio ads will all be banned going forward. Sponsorships are how a large amount of the biggest Twitch streamers make money on the platform, especially since it maintains a controversial 50/50 revenue split with its creators.

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Reactions to the new ad rules are pretty negative across the board, with many accusing Twitch of trying to get sponsors to go through the platform itself rather than through streamers. In fact, the reactions from streamers has been so hostile that Twitch apologised for the changes a little over four hours after they were discovered, claiming that the branded content policy update was "overly broad."

However, it seems like a lot of the damage has already been done, as many are now accusing the platform of deliberately implementing unpopular changes to see what it can get away with. Twitch has stated that it's going to "update the language" of the policy update, though many believe that this is simply Twitch backtracking to a less controversial policy update now it's already riled up so many streamers. We'll have to wait and see whether Twitch reverses any of its new ad