There's been a lot of controversy surrounding Twitch lately. The hot tub fiasco in which the streaming platform banned use of the words "hot tub" on its site made it the subject of much criticism. Not to mention its reputation for banning users. However, after a campaign from the community, the streaming website has embraced progressive attitudes by including new diversity tags.
A recent report indicates that Twitch is finally adding diversity tags to its site after many people made it clear that streamers wanted more ways to be able to identify themselves on the platform. A post on Twitter today announced that the site would have tags related to gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ability, and mental health, as well as others. In total, Twitch has added more than 350 new tags, encouraging streamers and non-streamers to "celebrate" their diversity.
The Twitch community is arguably the one to thank for this. In the past, the users have rallied together to try and make changes to the platform for the better. Despite the strength of this community, the site has been mired by controversies lately, particularly in 2020 when it seemed to miss the entire point of the Black Lives Matter protests, as well as the aforementioned ban of popular streamers which seem to come out of nowhere.
That said, Twitch adding hundreds of diversity tags is arguably a step in the right direction. With a call for the company to include tags for trans people, it seems as though it's finally paying attention. An official post on Twitch's blog acknowledged the trans community, thanking them for requesting the "transgender" tag, adding that it has been one of the most popular requests the site has ever had. The post also acknowledged that, although tags were added to the site in 2018, they held off on adding ways in which users could identify themselves initially, instead focusing on tags dedicated to what people were streaming specifically.
Despite being the biggest streaming website on the internet, there seems to be a love-hate relationship between Twitch and its user base. With the controversy surrounding the recent hot tub streams currently on everyone's mind, the inclusion of diversity tags could be a way for the platform to repair a damaged reputation that it's built up recently. Allowing people to identify themselves however they want on their site is a positive move forward, even if it did take some effort for them to embrace it in the end.
Source: Twitch Blog