Twitch adds new 'Brand Safety Score' rating for streamers: What does it mean?

Twitch has reportedly added a new Brand Safety Score system to rate all streamers for their content and community, which could affect advertising opportunities. 

Such a system is already in place on YouTube, where channels and videos are either monetized or demonetized depending on the content.

It appears that Twitch is now taking a similar approach with livestreamed content. This is according to new strings uncovered in the platform’s API.

Update, March 10: A Twitch spokesperson has now responded with the following statement: “We are exploring ways to improve the experience on Twitch for viewers and creators, including efforts to better match the appropriate ads to the right communities. User privacy is critical on Twitch, and, as we refine this process, we will not pursue plans that compromise that priority. Nothing has launched yet, no personal information was shared, and we will keep our community informed of any updates along the way.”

New Twitch Brand Safety Score

The system will apparently rate “how brand-friendly every streamer is based on things like chat behavior, ban history, manual ratings by Twitch staff, games played, age, automod and more.”

This information comes via Twitter user @tayariCS, an open-source developer working independently on some Twitch-related projects.

Twitch has added an automatic Brand Safety Score which grades how brand friendly every streamer is based on things like chat behavior, ban history, manual ratings by Twitch staff, games played, age, automod and more (See below).
1/5 pic.twitter.com/VBl4HjGv7t

— Daylam 'tayari' Tayari (@tayariCS) March 9, 2021

The main factors in deciding this new Brand Safety score, are:

• Streamer’s age
• Streamer’s ban history, with reason for any suspensions
• Streamer’s relationship with Twitch
• Automod and the automod level
• A manual rating by Twitch staff
• Partnership status
• Age rating of game being played
• Stream set to ‘mature’ or not

You can see these parameters in the code, via tayariCS:

What does this mean for streamers?

Presumably, a channel’s score could be used to determine what ads and how many ads will be shown on their content. It may also affect the Twitch bounty system.

Bounties are offers, typically from game developers, for a streamer to play or promote their game on Twitch in return for a fee. Some of these bounties can offer substantial compensation.

It could also have another implication though – ban explanations. As this data is stored by Twitch, information requests by streamers could potentially allow them to see more exact reasons for any suspensions.

Twitch typically only cites the top-level community guideline that was violated (e.g. hateful conduct) when telling a streamer why they were banned, rarely going into more detail. In some cases, such as Dr Disrespect, the streamers claim they were never given a reason at all.

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