Twitch is changing the way it enforces its Community Guidelines. In an announcement on its website, Twitch said it will introduce a new enforcement strategy in which strikes for certain violations will decrease over time, users will receive more information about their strikes, and users will be able to take educational courses to reduce the severity of enforcement actions. In an interview with The EdgeRob Lewington, VP of safety operations at Twitch, and Kristen Murdock, director of safety risk and response, spoke about the new program and what it means for moderating communities on Twitch.

Lewington said safety is Twitch’s top priority. He said Twitch has more than 105 million monthly users with 1.3 trillion minutes of content watched. But such massive numbers, combined with Twitch’s age and popularity as a livestreaming destination, have created unique challenges in how the platform punishes those who break its rules.

Currently, when a streamer violates one of Twitch’s Community Guidelines, they receive some form of enforcement such as a warning or a suspension, which is then counted against them in the form of a strike. After a certain number of strikes, that streamer’s account can be suspended indefinitely. “We’ve had people on Twitch for a long time who have had enforcements in the past, but those don’t expire over time,” Lewington said. “(This current system) penalizes people who have been on Twitch for a long time, and that’s not what we want.”

Under this new system, strikes for “low severity” violations will expire after a certain amount of time. While unintentional nudity was given as an example, Twitch did not provide a comprehensive list of what constitutes “low severity” violations, nor how long it would take for them to expire. “That’s still a work in progress,” Lewington said. “We’re still figuring out the exact timelines.” He did say, however, that strikes for high severity violations — incidents related to child safety, terrorism or hateful conduct — will never decline.

In addition to expiring warnings, Twitch is now providing users with more information when a violation occurs. Starting next year, Twitch will offer the relevant chat message or clip to provide context as to why an enforcement action was taken. Lewington said providing this information helps people better understand what they did wrong and also gives them the tools they may need if they want to file an appeal.

The final component of Twitch’s new enforcement strategy involves offering educational courses to users when a violation occurs. As an example, Murdock described a situation where an individual who received a hate speech warning was able to have the length of their suspension reduced by taking a relevant educational course and quiz.

Murdock said Twitch worked with the Anti-Defamation League and other outside experts to develop these courses and quizzes around topics like hate speech, sexual content and gambling. Their goal is to create consistent messages for both streamers and moderators about what actions constitute a violation.

This new strategy reflects Twitch’s desire to ensure its communities remain safe while also providing members who have made mistakes the opportunity to learn and grow from their experiences.