Twitch creator Kai Cenat just finished a month-long “subathon,” livestreaming nonstop for 30 days and smashing the platform’s subscriber record in the process. The event was a ringing endorsement of Twitch as a creator platform — but also showcased the challenges caused by its lack of original IP.
Cenat’s record-breaking stream tested the limits of Twitch’s brand safety guidelines. Although Twitch dissolved its Safety Advisory Council, an advisory group of industry experts, in May, the company has since taken steps to improve its brand safety tools for prospective advertisers. On Nov. 1, for example, Twitch added a new feature that allows users to hide streams that broadcast political or otherwise controversial content, creating new content labels in an effort to help brands exert more control over the types of content they advertise alongside.
But although Cenat’s stream was occasionally marked by PG-13 or R-rated behavior, Twitch did not take any public steps to shield its advertisers from his or his team’s more controversial content. The situation highlighted the subjective approach that Twitch tends to use with regard to its largest creators’ brand safety risks. Twitch needs to consider the needs of both its creators and its advertisers — but threading the needle between the two can be a delicate dance.
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