--- title: "Twitch Reverses Allowing “Artistic Nudity” After Disastrous Results" description: "The streaming platform Twitch has done an about-face just two days after changing its policies to allow \"artistic nudity.\"" date: "2023-12-16" modified: "2023-12-16" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitch-artistic-nudity-reversal" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "gaming" - "the digest" - "twitch" --- # Twitch Reverses Allowing “Artistic Nudity” After Disastrous Results ![The streaming platform Twitch has done an about-face just two days after changing its policies to allow "artistic nudity."]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Cacophony of Flesh The streaming platform Twitch has done an about-face just two days after changing its policies to allow "artistic nudity." In an [update posted to the company blog]() on Friday, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy admitted that [allowing some forms]() of simulated or suggested nudity, including angles of topless people with breasts cut off just before their nipples are shown, was a bad idea. The entire debacle began earlier in December, when, as [*Kotaku* reports](), a bunch of men on the platform got really, really mad that streamer and OnlyFans model Morgpie was depicted seemingly topless from the collarbone up, with the top of her breasts showing. The user in question was banned — though as she clarified in a tweet thread, that happened due to "[off-screen \[breast\] clapping]()," not because she actually appeared in the nude. Curiously, Morgpie claimed in a taped [interview with the streaming blog *Dexerto*]() that during the offending streams in question, she was actually wearing a flesh-colored tube top and jeans below where the camera cut off. https://twitter.com/i/status/1734916194585522213 ## Survive and Thrive After the Morgpie scandal — which again, occurred because male gamers were *mad that women were stripping down* of their own accord — Twitch updated its [sexual content policy]() to include "fictionalized nudity" like the so-called "topless meta" where streamers would pose topless with the camera cutting off just so, suggesting nudity without explicitly showing everything. That decision was made, as Clancy wrote in his post reversing the policy, to "allow the thriving artist community on Twitch to utilize the human form in their art." According to the CEO, the policy change came with somewhat of an uptick in sexual content policy violations, but more so because of "community concerns" regarding the content that had sprung up under the new guidelines. We can't say for sure, but that sounds a lot like kowtowing to angry misogynists. "Upon reflection, we have decided that we went too far with this change," Clancy wrote. "Digital depictions of nudity present a unique challenge — AI can be used to create realistic images, and it can be hard to distinguish between digital art and photography." While it's impossible to say what the Twitch C-suite knows that we don't, it seems like this is yet another instance of [angry internet men]() [successfully policing women's bodies]() — and it's all the more pathetic that the sexual expression they were so up in arms about was far less explicit than what one might see on an *HBO* show. **More on misogyny:** *[Tech CEO Accused of "Enslaving" Assistant]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()