Twitch on Friday ended the contracts of its safety council members, which consulted on trust and safety issues related to children on Twitch, nudity and more.
  • Twitch on Friday will end the contracts for all members of its Safety Advisory Council, a resource made up of industry experts, streamers and moderators, who consulted on trust and safety issues.
  • The council has advised Twitch on “drafting new policies and policy updates,” “developing products and features to improve safety and moderation” and “protecting the interests of marginalized groups,” per a company webpage.
  • On May 6, council members were called into a meeting after receiving an email that all existing contracts would conclude on May 31, 2024, and that they would not receive payment for the second half of 2024.
    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      5 months ago

      If safety is in the way of a slight increase in profit and there are no expensive legal consequences, safety has to go. And companies like X are testing how far you can go without consequences.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        5 months ago

        There are consequences for X. Advertisers are pulling out and it’s becoming increasingly unpalatable for companies and people to use, and so its user base is not exactly growing rapidly (although I have no evidence to say it is shrinking).

  • Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    501·
    5 months ago

    They’re going to replace them with an AI powered tool, aren’t they? If they’re going to replace them at all that is.

    • treadful@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      361·
      5 months ago

      They’ve done that already. I’ve actually gotten banned twice because their AI tool thought I was harassing a streamer. Both reversed almost immediately after an appeal. Guess those appeals may no longer have people responding to them…

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        252·
        5 months ago

        This is why I’m here. Reddit did the same shit right after their IPO went public. When I declined their early invitation to buy IPO, the next day my account got banned for 3 days.

        The first one was a post where a guy in Cleveland had his motorbike stolen. I live in Cleveland. And this guy had pictures of the guy who stole his bike. He looked kind of like the guy who stole my bicycle back in the late 80s when I was a kid. I said “Hey, maybe this guys the son of the guy who stole MY bike 30+ years ago! Keeping the business in the family.”

        BANNED 3 DAYS for “harrassment of reddit user”. Who am I harassing? The guy who stole my bike 30 years ago? The guy who stole the motor bike a few months ago? We have zero indication that either of them are on reddit at all, much less in this thread.

        Similiar situations like this all happened 2 more times, and on the 3rd time, perma-ban sitewide.

        It’s a 10+ year old reddit account, with like a billion karma because I don’t do drugs. I don’t drink much, I don’t smoke, I don’t have hobbies, I only have one addiction and it’s reddit.

        And each appeal came back less than a day later and claimed it was reviewed by a human, and agreed upon by a human.

        I didn’t appeal the last one, because I’m thinking if I appeal that, and lose, I lose the account. But even though they claim the other 2 times were reviewed by humans, I don’t think they were.

        And even still. If they review the appeal, and reverse it, how long until ANOTHER bot does the same thing, and permabans me again?

        It really feels like I lost that account. 2022 I was even in the top 1% of comment posters. Instead of making another account I’m just going to switch to Lemmy and help this platform grow instead. Reddit just loses a user that probably posts literally every hour, usually several times an hour. Just whenever I’m bored, I’ll post a comment on something engaging in conversation.

        Now I do that here, as I attempt to figure out how to use Lemmy.

  • palordrolap@kbin.social
    411·
    5 months ago

    Important: The article mentions that they are being replaced not that the SAC is being done away with completely.

    On the other hand:

    Twitch declined to comment on whether the [new council members] would be paid.

    The text I replaced there is “ambassadors”, that is, Twitch ambassadors, people given a title that means nothing outside of Twitch, but is the only payment these people will be getting, outside, perhaps, a sense of pride and accomplishment.

  • KeriKitty (They(/It))@pawb.socialEnglish
    211·
    5 months ago

    [Sarcasm] See, they really do care about us! They care so much they’re unhiring everyone whose job it was to pretend they care about us! Twitch is a great company and not an evil ball of shit! I respect Amazon and its owned companies and subsidiaries and whatnot because I know they respect me!

  • ErinCrush@lemm.eeEnglish
    181·
    5 months ago

    The joke about corporations realizing they can stop doing “diversity hires” really is true isn’t it? They can do whatever they want, their giant team of lawyers will protect the bottom line no matter what.

  • metaStatic@kbin.social
    106·
    5 months ago

    if I know anything about advisory councils in tech it was pure optics and letting them all go will have absolutely zero impact on the normal flow of business beside the current bad press.

    I would love to know if they ever affected company policy even slightly.

  • Glent@lemmy.caEnglish
    33·
    5 months ago

    Tough to cash russian disinfo checks in the run up to the election when there are watchdogs. Probably salivating over the rubles facebook, xitter, and reddit are raking in.

  • PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.eeEnglish
    46·
    5 months ago

    protecting the interests of marginalized groups

    What does this even mean? Unless not caring hurts their bottom line, why should Twitch care?

    • JeffKerman1999@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      I guess it was a PR problem with the “me too” and “black lives matter” movements going around. But since trump and the republican party are openly being sexist racist bigots, there’s no need to pretend to care.

    • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      It doesn’t. For a little while they had that group in place as they watched the business landscape in case they got sued. Now their legal team has advised that it’s no longer necessary, and they will save money by cutting it