Twitch has decided to replace the entirety of their Safety Advisory Council. Instead of being made up of a group of expert consultants, the Safety Advisory Council will now instead be made up of Twitch Ambassadors.
According to a report from CNBC, the Council was formed in 2020 and consisted of nine industry experts, along with various moderators and streamers. This group was used by Twitch for consultation purposes on how to deal with safety issues related to hate raids, nudity on the platform, and the safety of children to name a few of the things they helped to address. This council helped with "drafting new poicies and policy updates" as well as "developing products and features to improve safety and moderation" and "protecting the interests of marginalized groups."
According to Twitch's own page for the Safety Advisory Council, the group "is composed of online safety experts and Twitch creators who have a deep understanding of Twitch, its content, and its community." Members of the council were "carefully selected based on their familiarity with the Twitch community and their relevant personal and professional experiences."
The council was not made up of Twitch employees, but rather advisors, including Dr. Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center; Emma Llansó, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Free Expression Project; and Dr. T.L. Taylor, co-founder and director of AnyKey, which advocates for diversity and inclusion in gaming.
Replacing this group of experts will be Twitch Ambassadors. Twitch Ambassadors are simply streamers that use Twitch. They were chosen to be Ambassadors "because of the positive impact they've contributed to the Twitch community."
Experts on the council used to make between $10,000 and $20,000 for their consultation work per 12-month period. Twitch has declined to comment if any of the Twitch Ambassadors they're filling these vacant positions with will be paid anything at all.
Today's termination of the contracts for the experts on the Safety Advisory Council comes roughly a year after Twitch laid off around 50 employees who were "responsible for monitoring abusive, illegal, or harmful behavior."
An official statement to CNBC from a Twitch spokesperson says that the Twitch Ambassadors replacing the experts will "offer fresh, diverse perspectives."
Replacing safety experts with streamers? Declining to comment about if these Ambassadors will be paid? How could this possibly go wrong?
..................In fact, my brain keeps switching the words back to Twitter/Elon.
I'm........Just going to run and hide.