Twitch to ban users who share ‘harmful misinformation’

"We've learned that 'Harmful Misinformation Actors' account for a disproportionate amount of damaging, widely debunked misinformation online," said the company.

New Delhi: Streaming platform Twitch has said it will ban harmful misinformation actors from using its service.

Updating its spam, scams and malicious conduct policy, the platform said it would prohibit users who share harmful misinformation.

“Our goal is to prohibit individuals whose online presence is dedicated to spreading harmful, false information from using Twitch. We will not enforce against one-off statements containing misinformation,” the company said in a statement.

Twitch has partnered with over a dozen researchers and experts to understand how harmful misinformation spreads online and ensure its approach to mitigating its risks in the community is effective.

“We’ve learned that ‘Harmful Misinformation Actors’ account for a disproportionate amount of damaging, widely debunked misinformation online,” said the company.

It identified three characteristics that all of these actors share: their online presence – whether on or off Twitch — is dedicated to (1) persistently sharing (2) widely disproven and broadly shared (3) harmful misinformation topics, such as conspiracies that promote violence.

“We will only enforce against actors who meet all three of these criteria, and our Off-Service investigations team will be conducting thorough reviews into each case” it added.

In addition to this, the company will continue to take action on misinformation that targets specific communities under its Hateful Conduct and Harassment Policy.

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