Content creators on Twitch are labelling mature content much more accurately after the platform changed its content classification guidelines in June 2023, according to an evaluation of the measure by Ofcom. 

Following that rule change last year, Twitch creators were provided a broad set of content labels to specifically characterise content, and must now apply classification labels to tell viewers if the stream they are about to watch contains certain mature themes.

By analysing data from more than 3 million streams between March and December 2023, Ofcom found that content labelling accuracy increased substantially following these changes, along with a decrease in the mislabelling of other streams as mature.

Before the changes were implemented, Ofcom analysis suggests that less than half (48%) of mature gaming streams were accurately labelled, and just two thirds (65%) of gambling streams were accurately labelled as mature. 

Other areas had higher accuracy rates, like sexual themes (85%), drugs, intoxication or excessive tobacco use (82%) and violent and graphic depictions (86%), but no genre of stream was 100% accurate.

The research found that the content labelling rules didn’t have any substantial effect on the type of content produced by creators, and that there were no major changes in the weekly volume of mature content produced directly following the rule change. 

However, the report did find that more specific content labels, coupled with penalties for inaccurate labelling, led content creators to change their behaviour in terms of how accurately they labelled content. That change, the regulator claims, has resulted in users being provided with much clearer alerts for mature content.

According to Backlinko, Twitch currently gets more than 240 million unique visitors every month, and earlier this year published its transparency report for H2 2023, with the company claiming that it responded to around 80% of reports regarding content in under 10 minutes, and that 81% of enforcements were the result of proactive investigations.

“As the regulator for the video-sharing platforms and Online Safety regimes, it is important that Ofcom evaluates safety measures deployed by platforms to understand their impact and effectiveness in improving online safety,” said the regulator.

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“This research both advances our understanding of safety measures and their efficacy, and builds our skills and knowledge on using platform Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to collect data to inform research.”

The apparent success of these content moderation measures at Twitch will be closely scrutinised by other social media platforms, following intense debate about the availability of violent and hateful content in recent weeks.

In response to riots in England in part fuelled by viral, right-wing social media posts, Ofcom urged online platforms to do more to curb illegal content before new rules can be enforced through the Online Safety Act.