Twitch apparently bans ‘hot tub’ from official channel’s chat

As the hot tub meta continues to run wild on Twitch, a few users have reported that they are unable to use the phrase in chat messages on the platform’s official channel, due to moderation settings.

The ‘hot tub’ meta has taken over Twitch in 2021, with Just Chatting streamers pushing the boundaries as to what is and what isn’t acceptable. These streams have come under constant criticism from content creators who have raised concerns about the direction in which Twitch is headed, while others have just out and out mocked the hot tub streamers with parody broadcasts. The hot tub streams don’t actually break any rules under Twitch guidelines as bathing suits are permissible as long as they are being worn in an appropriate environment (e.g. a beach or pool). However, some users reported that you can’t actually talk about it on Twitch’s own channel.

Twitch viewer and Redditor JitterOS flagged that they’d tried to post the phrase ‘hot tub streamers’ on Twitch’s main channel during their May 14 Public Access broadcast.

• Read More: Pokimane’s hot tub stream hits 100K viewers with OfflineTV bath water

In the Redditor’s screenshot, their post is followed by the message: ‘Your message wasn’t posted due to conflicts with the channel’s moderation settings.’ This message indicates that a phrase or word has been banned from being used in the chat, rather than a ban for the specific user who has posted it.

Some other users criticized Twitch for seemingly blocking the phrase, stating that they “solved that issue the easy way by avoiding people complaining about the subject.” One other posted joked: “Guess we’ll have to call them, warm water container broadcasters, now.”

• Read More: H3H3 hits back at $100m Triller lawsuit over showing Jake Paul fight clip

Dexerto has since tested posting the phrase ‘hot tub streamers’ in Twitch’s own chat and there was no message this time around, which suggests that either a change has been made since or it was a bug the first time around. Twitch has been pretty open in addressing certain complaints about these hot tub broadcasts, and it remains to be seen if they’ll clamp down on them in the future or if they will be allowed to continue.