Twitch Pauses Boost Feature Due to Porn-Promoting Epidemic

Just twitch can’t seem to scrub porn from his platform. Thanks to the “Boost that stream” Feature from the Amazon-owned company, which launched last October and which viewers pay to advertise, or “boost”, sexually explicit content on the platform’s front page. Not surprisingly, Twitch has paused the boosting feature indefinitely.

According to reports from point esports and PC gamerpeople on twitch started seeing lewd content on their front pages up or around March 30. The videos, which contain content you’d likely see on something like PornHub, reportedly showed up in the featured Live Channels We Think You’ll Like category, which appears just below the site’s main carousel . It’s probably not meant to be there as it’s against Twitch’s community guidelines, but due to the Boost This Stream feature, some likely previously obscure Twitch accounts are paying real money to spread this content.

Boost This Stream, tested last year before receiving some tweaks and making a comeback this March boost train, viewers can pay to boost a content creator’s channel for better discoverability. It is a supercharged automatic transmission hype train this should benefit smaller streamers. Instead, some people use the tool for porn, although sites like PornHub are easily accessible.

When reached for comment, a Twitch spokesman said kotaku The company is returning to the drawing board to improve platform discoverability.

“We have decided to pause Boost Train due to some safety concerns that arose during the experiment,” the spokesperson said. “Our experiments help us learn and build even better tools for the community, and we use the feedback from this experiment to inform how we approach future launches. We share additional updates to our community on new features to improve discoverability when available. Sexually explicit content — including pornography — is not allowed on Twitch, according to ours Community Guidelines.”

Twitch reporter Zach Bussey, who too tweeted a screenshot of porn on the platform’s front pagetold kotaku The predicament for Twitch is “interesting” via direct messages.

“Twitch’s bad actors are interesting because not even financial constraints seem to stop them,” said Bussey. “The Boost train and front page slot, originating from the Boost, would require an affiliated (monetized) channel receiving financial backing from multiple people to activate. the [feature], which is a slight change from previous Boost This Stream and Channel Points Boost tests they’ve run in the past, is extremely unpopular with the community. Nobody likes it, and while that might be the least offensive way to introduce it, it should never have been released. Monetizing the front-page discovery for a service that’s struggling to offer discoveries is a recipe for disaster — so here we are.”

It’s unclear when the Boost This Stream feature will return or if it will receive further changes, as the Twitch announcer could only reiterate that it’s “paused” for now.