Twitch is changing its suspension policy so that violations have an expiry date because the system 'didn’t acknowledge community members who had learned from their past mistakes'

A recent update to Twitch's enforcement system saw the process of punishing violations change. Instead of maintaining strikes against your account indefinitely, they will now disappear after various lengths of time to "reduce the risk that streamers lose their communities and livelihoods for low severity violations."

Despite only 4% of active streamers receiving any sort of suspension, Twitch seems to think that the current policy concerning violations is too harsh. "Before today, every violation counted against your account permanently, even minor violations of our rules," the blog post says. "This system disproportionately impacted longtime streamers, as over time, multiple minor infractions could result in an indefinite suspension. This process could be overly punitive and was one that didn’t acknowledge community members who had learned from their past mistakes." Now, if you violate the Twitch community guidelines, you'll be able to track the enforcement on the Appeals Portal.

You'll be able to use this to see what kind of violation you committed and when this strike on your profile will expire. Most violations, like cheating in online games, are labelled low-severity and will expire after 90 days. However, high-severity violations like hateful conduct will stick around for one to two years. However, that doesn't mean Twitch is going to go easy on repeat offenders.

Individuals who repeatedly break the community guidelines will face escalating consequences. If you violate the same policy multiple times within the expiration window, your suspension will increase: "For example, if you receive a stream sniping violation and then stream snipe someone else in a month (before the prior violation has expired), you will receive a longer suspension the second time because it was the same type of violation."

The end punishment for repeat offenders will also still be indefinite suspensions. "The most severe harms will still result in immediate indefinite suspensions," the post says. "If you are indefinitely suspended due to accumulating multiple violations within a short time period, you are able to apply for reinstatement after six months."

Other than making it easier to skirt punishment for community guideline violations, Twitch is also adding a helpful feature that'll make finding what you were punished for more straightforward. Instead of leaving streamers to sift through hours of footage, Twitch will now provide the chat message or snippet of the stream that violated policy. "Further down the line, if a violation takes place on-stream or in a VOD, we’ll provide a clip for you to review," the post adds. "We’ll have more to share about these changes in the coming months."

While there may be some scope to use these temporary violations maliciously to skirt permanent punishment, all in all, it does seem like a sensible change, especially for streamers who have been on Twitch for years.