Twitch streamers are pushing back against the platform's new "branded content guidelines," which place strict limits on how ads can be placed.

The new guidelines page begins with a detailed breakdown of what qualifies as branded content and what does not, and when and how promotions and sponsorships must be disclosed. There is also a bit about disclosing branded content, "You can easily notify the community that your stream contains branded content."

Things take a turn later in the page, when Twitch cuts to what it's really all about, explaining "permitted and prohibited forms of brand sponsorship."

"While we recognize that streamers want to collaborate with brands, we retain the exclusive right to sell, serve, and display advertising on the Twitch service, as explained in our Terms of Service. This means that you cannot insert, embed, or "bake" pre-recorded ad units into your live stream.

Also on this page is an illustration of what is allowed and what is not. This is OK:

And this is NG:

This new policy could be a big problem for many streamers. Many streamers prefer sponsored content, which Twitch currently outlaws. For some big-name streamers, these brand agreements are the backbone of their income. Restrictions on ad placement could not only threaten to cut into individual streamers' revenue streams, but could also force gaming events such as Evo and Games Done Quick to completely change the layout of their streams.

For example, here is a still from the stream of Evo Japan 2023 in April. Note the large ad window at the bottom:

"This Twitch announcement wouldn't bother me so much if I believed that Twitch's sales team could meet the needs of live events across the planet," Evo General Manager Rick Tihar tweeted.

ShyLily, who has 1.1 million followers on Twitch, was a bit more targeted in her assessment, tweeting, "What the fuck, twitch feeling very confident right now."

Alex Jebailey, founder of CEO Gaming and face of the famous "Jebaited" emoticon, offered to take one for the team if Twitch agreed to drop the new guidelines:

" Hopefully Twitch will see the feedback on this and actually not pass it. Because we're basically running out of sponsorships that our live events can work with," Jebailey added." Thankfully, it won't start until after the CEO is held so I can honor the sponsorships I have." Jebailey added.

OTKnetwork took a more hard-line approach and said it would leave Twitch altogether if the new rules were passed; Tips Out, co-founder of OTKnetwork, said, "This is a direct attack on our business, our staff, and the hard work we put into our organization. This is a direct attack on our business, our staff, and all the hard work we put into our organization," he tweeted.

In response to the backlash, Twitch admitted on Twitter that the policy language was off the mark and that it would rewrite the guidelines to be more clear.

"Today's update to the Branded Content Policy was overly broad. This has caused confusion and frustration and we apologize," Twitch tweeted. We do not intend to restrict streamers from forming direct relationships with sponsors, and we understand that this is an important part of how streamers generate revenue. We wanted to clarify our existing ad policy, which is intended to prohibit third-party ad networks from conducting bake sales with Twitch video and display ads." This is consistent with other services.

However, the upset does not seem to have subsided, as many replies accurately point out that the issue is not one of clarity, but of content: the guidelines are perfectly clear.

In response to Twitch's apology, streamer King Gothalion tweeted, "Take it all back and come back with something empowering for creators.

There is still plenty of time for Twitch to adjust or undo the changes without causing major disruption: to allow streamers time to adapt to these new guidelines and communicate these changes to sponsors." as we asked Twitch for comment, We will update if we receive a response.