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Twitch announces new nudity policy - “cleavage is unrestricted”

After Twitch's previous attire guidelines fell short, the company is now being absurdly, comically specific

Unrestricted cleavage, but no underboob and no nipples. That’s one of the big points in Twitch’s new community guidelines on nudity and attire, which have gotten yet another revision after previous rules were too vague to be useful. Now, Twitch is getting ridiculously, hilariously specific – and that’s probably for the best.

Streamers are not allowed to expose “genitals or buttocks”, Twitch says in the new rules, nor can they show the “visible outline of genitals, even when covered”. For even more extreme specificity, here you go: all streamers must “must cover the area extending from your hips to the bottom of your pelvis and buttocks”.

“For those who present as women” – I cannot believe Twitch did not learn the lesson of ‘female-presenting nipples – “we ask that you cover your nipples. We do not permit exposed underbust. Cleavage is unrestricted as long as these coverage requirements are met.” Relevant “coverage” must also be opaque – no see-through clothes to smoothly expose your junk, sorry.

There are specific exceptions to the rules here and there. IRL streamers won’t be on the hook if, say, a streaker runs by in the background, but they will be expected to take action to avoid that sort of thing. Swimsuits are fine if you’re on a beach, body-painting is fine as long as women have pasties and everyone has their butts and genitals covered. Also, you’re fine if you’re “actively breastfeeding a child on stream.”

Probably gonna want to avoid streaming any sex games, though.

Previous versions of the rules were focused on context, with phrasing like attire “should be appropriate for a public street, mall, or restaurant”. That didn’t do much to either make the rules clear or dissuade some viewers from harassing women of perceived violations. Hopefully, the substantially more specific rules will help – and if nothing else, it’s given us delightfully ludicrous terms like ‘unrestricted cleavage’.