Dog Emote Blocked

Deku, a Twitch streamer, was taken aback when a harmless dog emote was reported as sexual content and removed from the network. 

The platform’s culture revolves around emotes. They have, however, sparked debate, with some being tagged as “sexual content” by Twitch as part of their community guidelines. But, according to the Twitch streamers who utilize them, they don’t always get it right. Twitch, for example, was criticized by Meowriianne for classifying a cartoon mushroom in a hot tub as “sexual content.” 

Similarly, NymN was taken aback when Twitch removed an emote from his channel that depicted a cartoon character’s eyes exploding out of its head, which is a nearly century-old cartoon cliche. 

Deku claimed that it had happened again on May 3. Deku has an emote that she believes clearly represents a dancing cartoon dog. Twitch, on the other hand, classified it as sexual content and took it off from her channel. In response to the ruling, she stated, “There is no way this is sexual content. A dog dancing is sexual content. WTF? Twitch really said, ‘Yeah, we will allow half-naked women on Twitch licking ear microphones, but a dancing dog wagging his tail is way too far!’” 

Twitch explained the reasoning behind their decision, describing it as: “Imagery of sexual content or nudity i.e., “Gasm”-style emotes which contained sexualized torsos or bodily fluids, animated images of buttocks.” 

Deku stated that if Twitch denied her request to unban the emote, she would find a way around it in some way. “You did this to yourselves, Twitch. I’m going to have this emote on my page whether you want it or not!”