Changes that had been due to come into effect on Twitch today have now been put on hold until March 5th.

“Thanks for all your insightful feedback on our new Community Guidelines,” a tweet from Twitch said. “It's important they're clear to everyone and we need to better explain some sections, so we're pushing back enforcement to start March 5. We'll release an updated FAQ before then.”

The company revealed earlier this month that it intended to change the guidelines regarding what is and is not acceptable behaviour and content on the platform. The move was seen as a response to the growing unease about the behaviour of some content creators.

However, the changes led to some Twitch streamers expressing concern about both their existing content and whether or not they would become liable for the behaviour of their viewers.

Behave Yourselves

Twitch has now said that an expanded version of its new guidelines FAQ is incoming, although a few changes have already been revealed.

Q: I don’t have an easy way to go through all of my old content. Should I delete everything?
A: No. Your content is important to your community! All content on the site is subject to enforcement of the new guidelines. We expect creators to make a good faith effort to remove any hateful, harassing, and sexually suggestive content from their channel during the grace period. If reported, content that violates the new guidelines and that was created before the new guidelines come into effect will be removed without suspension, but we reserve the right to exercise discretion on severe violations.

This is a change from the previous position that threatened streamers with possible retrospective punishment for past content.