Twitch Is Cracking Down On Usernames Referencing Drugs And Sex

thegamer.com:

"We have additional, higher standards for usernames based on reducing harm across our services," Twitch wrote about its new policy, outlining a series of things no longer allowed in usernames.

"Usernames and display names created on Twitch may not include:

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If your username breaks these new stipulations, you'll be forced to change it. But don't worry about being banned from the platform - unless you're a repeat offender. If you continue to breach these new rules with your username, you could be subject to a suspension, while more offensive names and severe cases of breaching the rules will lead to a suspension before a warning. BongUser69 is a little less offensive than referencing a terror attack or impersonating someone, for instance.

"Our suspension data indicates that the vast majority of users who create names that would result in indefinite suspensions create many such accounts, and are often involved in malicious raiding, brigading, and harassment campaigns," the updated policy continued. "Because these individuals harm and spread toxicity within the Twitch community, we indefinitely suspend them immediately in order to mitigate this abuse, as well as remove the username."

Twitch has seen a spike in hate raids and campaigns, particularly toward LGBTQ+ and other marginalised streamers, and these raids vary from hateful abuse spammed in the chat to doxxing and swatting - revealing the streamer's address and sending the police to raid them.

This new policy seeks to find contributors to these hate raids, hopefully catching them beforehand. However, with a new policy, those partaking in hate raids will likely stop using obvious usernames to simply avoid