Twitch consumers for a while now have been complaining about content on the platform that can be seen as selling sex. What initially started as "gaming streams":
Then "fitness streams" and "body paint streams":
And finally "just chatting" streams...
...finally evolved into what became the "hot tub meta." Streamers had been running into problems with risque content and getting bans. A loophole of wearing a bikini at the beach or a pool was found. This art form was then refined to having kiddie pools in the house.
This was all coming to a fore in recent times, with people complaining that the content exploited children and lonely men. Some of these streamers also have OnlyFans accounts, and use their Twitch streams to relay traffic there. The heat of the situation started warming up major media and news outlets, so Amazon was finally prompted to formally respond. It chose the very interesting choice of making a Pools, Hot Tubs and Beaches section, which would ensure users looking for Just Chatting streamers that they would not find undesired content. It's a pretty unique place.
Twitch has also decided to add some extra tags:
"We’ll have tags related to gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ability, mental health, and more."
Reddit users are having a field day about this.
"Sodapoppin just went live! (white, depressed)"
"This is perfect for their new porn section. Cooming to your preferred "tag" is going to be even easier now. Pornhub should seriously take notes."
"Can't wait to filter out all the minorities, thanks Twitch.
/s"
"Jarvis, find me a gay black transexual. Turn the racism to 60%, homophobia to 80% and max out the transphobia. It's gamer time"
"This is the trainwreck I've been waiting for
-woke viewers will be mad that some obscure gender / ethnicity will be missing
-regular viewers will be mad because they implemented identity tags before content tags
-white streamers will be mad because its clearly designed to boost other people in a 0 sum server
-POC streamers will be mad because it's now easier than ever for toxic racists to harass them
The drama is going to be beautiful"