Twitch reveals how often police were contacted for “credible threats of violence” in 2020

Twitch has revealed a wealth of new information in its 2020 transparency report, including details on when the platform contacts and works with law enforcement.
On March 2, the Amazon-owned streaming site released its first-ever global transparency report, covering January to December 2020. The report details how its moderation levels increased from the first to the second half of the year, actions taken to prevent harassment, inappropriate content and even information about law enforcement. While not exactly a common occurrence, there are some incidents that happen on Twitch that eventually result in police being contacted. This can be more likely to take place within the realm of IRL streams.

According to this latest information provided by Twitch, “Whenever and wherever Twitch identifies credible threats of violence, Twitch will proactively send user data to appropriate law enforcement agencies.” The site says that in 2020, there were 38 such cases. However, the majority took place during the first half of the year. Twitch suspects this is because of the decrease in public gatherings caused by the global health crisis.

Additionally, Twitch stated that when they are made aware of content depicting child exploitation or grooming behavior, they remove the content and report authorities via the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. There was a 66% increase from the first half of the year to the second, which Twitch says is due to improvements to their investigation process.
