Recently, Twitch users discovered that they were unable to use certain words to self-identify themselves in their profile descriptions. In particular, users were unable to use the word “autistic” as a descriptor to identify themselves on their Twitch profile.
Because of the history of harassment that certain members of the gaming community have suffered on multiple different platforms, Twitch has been trying to maintain a friendly environment by restricting the use of certain words that have been used as insults. Twitch has also made an effort to keep conflictive behavior at bay by removing the PogChamp emote from their repertoire after Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez posted tweets after the Capitol riots on January 6 that seemed to encourage violence.
This time, however, Twitch’s attempts to create a peaceful environment by creating a safe space for users ended up being a detriment to certain gamers on the platform. As some users expressed on Twitter, using “autistic” as the first descriptor on their profile can help them convey that they might have some issues while communicating. Without the possibility of self-identifying as autistic on Twitch, interactions with their followers may be more difficult.
The problem started when Twitch implemented the use of Automod on profiles and bios to continue its campaign against harassment. Previously, Twitch had updated its hateful conduct and harassment policy page to ban other words including “simp” and “incel,” which have been also used as derogatory terms in the past.
Now that the autistic gaming community brought the problem to Twitch’s attention, a spokesperson told IGN that the site would be working on this issue and updating the system in the next few weeks. It was also remarked that Twitch’s intention was not to prevent people from self-identifying as autistic.
While some of the users who want to use “autistic” as a descriptor were bothered by Twitch’s Automod consequences, not everyone thought it was not an ill-intended action. Some users did try to get Twitch’s attention on Twitter, but assumed the problem was the result of a bug on Twitch.
However, other members of the autistic gaming community took Twitch’s restriction as a form of discrimination and ableism for considering “autistic” to be a derogatory term. Even though the term has been used negatively by some in the past, other users claim they take pride in considering themselves autistic, and say that they want to be able to self-identify as such in their everyday lives as well as on platforms like Twitch.
Source: IGN
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