Twitch just banned the usage of the term "simp", which is
commonly used by the twitch community to refer to men who seem desperate to get
women’s attention. The word has been banned as Twitch updates its harassment policy,
that deems the word as an insult. Words like "virgin" and "incel" will be
banned too.
The new policy is expected to come into effect on 22nd
of January. The policy will address sexual harassment by imposing strict rules
around it.
The reason why Twitch is going to ban the term "simp" is because the company believes that it is a sexually-focused and derogatory term that negatively targets a person. The other words, "incel" and "virgin" will not be banned in every situation, but only where they are used for harassment. “We would take action if they are used repeatedly in a harassing manner,” a Twitch spokesperson said.
Similarly, other terms and statements that would be used to
target a person’s perceived sexual practices or sexual morality will be banned as
well.
Twitch has been working on updating its harassment policy
after it received numerous reports of sexual harassment within its community. Many
of them were complaints that the company had been ignoring for a long time. In June,
Twitch had announced that it would be working towards making its platform safer
and that a review of its harassment and
misconduct policies was underway.
