Twitch is pausing its Boost Train program after pornographic content found its way to the homepage.
Twitch decided to pause a feature allowing viewers to pay to promote their favorite streamers after malicious people used it to promote pornographic content on its homepage. Discovered by PC Gamer, many users of the platform then reported, especially on Twitter, that streams of pornographic videos were on the homepage, all with the mention “Promoted by the community”. At the origin of the problem, the problem Boost Train, which allows to promote streamers if enough fans create a “hype train” by buying subscriptions and Bits.
Twitch puts its Boost Train program on hold
Since Twitch only rolled out the Boost Train feature to partners, only a small number of streamers were able to take advantage of it. Difficult, at this stage, to know if the malicious people had access to accounts having themselves access to Boost Train.
In an email to Engadget, a Twitch spokesperson said the Boost Train feature was paused “for security reasons.” Twitch did not say if it had managed to identify the users responsible for promoting this offensive content, or if it intended to relaunch Boost Train, let alone when.
After pornographic content ended up on the homepage
Although sexually explicit content is against Twitch’s terms of service, some feel that the platform is not at all consistent in the kind of content it bans. The latter uses both community reports and artificial intelligence to identify streams to ban. Dot Esports reported this week that the platform is considering creating a “mature label”, which would allow streamers to offer Rated R content.
Boost Train debuted in early March, replacing the much-loved Paid Boosts program, which allowed fans to pay Twitch directly to boost their favorite streamers. Boost Train, on the other hand, aimed to reward smaller streamers with a growing fan base.