Twitch streamer stunned after innocent dog emote gets blocked

A Twitch streamer named Deku was stunned after an innocent dog emote was flagged as sexual content and blocked from the platform.

Twitch emotes are a big part of the platform’s culture. However, they’ve also been embroiled in controversy, including some that Twitch has flagged as “sexual content” pursuant to their community guidelines.

They don’t always get it right, though — at least, not according to the Twitch streamers who use them. For example, Meowriianne called out Twitch for flagging a cartoon mushroom in a hot tub as “sexual content.”

Similarly, NymN was shocked that Twitch banned an emote on his channel that showed a cartoon character’s eyes popping out of its head, which is an age-old trope in cartoons that dates back almost a century.

On May 3, Deku reported that it had happened again.

Twitch: KaraCorvus

Twitch has banned other ‘innocent’ emotes in the past.

Deku has an emote that she believes quite clearly depicts a cartoon dog dancing.

However, Twitch flagged it as sexual content and banned it from her channel. “There is no way this is sexual content,” she said in response to the ruling.

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“A dog dancing is sexual content. WTF? Twitch really said, ‘Yeah, we will allow half-naked women on Twitch licking ear microphones, but a dancing dog wagging his tail is way too far!'”

Twitch explained the reasoning behind their decision, describing it as: “Imagery of sexual content or nudity i.e., “Gasm”-style emotes which contained sexualized torsos or bodily fluids, animated images of buttocks.”

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Deku said if Twitch rejected her appeal to unban the emote, she’d find a way around it one way or another. “You did this to yourselves, Twitch. I’m going to have this emote on my page whether you want it or not!”