Kick just updated its community guidelines with stricter rules regarding content creation. While it is great that streamers now face consequences, it might cost Kick its unique selling point.
Kick is the place people go for controversial content but now it changed its community guidelines in favor of stricter regulations. Will this be the end for the platform?
New Rules For Kick
The livestreaming platform Kick is known for being a little more loose on the rules than its competitor Twitch. Many streamers that got banned on Twitch then continued streaming on Kick. Creators could be relatively free and also provocative in their content without it bringing any consequences or if it did, then only little as bans on Kick typically only last for a very short time. Kick was notorious for its content.
After major streamers like xQc spoke out about the platform's policies and called for stricter moderation, Kick started to change course, especially regarding gambling and the likes, which was very prominent on the site.
Now, after numerous on-stream incidents like arrests, accidents, violence and even one streamer's death, Kick has tightened its reigns and made a major update to its community guidelines on March 22.
There are new rules regarding harm:
We do not permit content that promotes, encourages, or instructs acts that pose a serious risk to personal safety, including self-harm or suicide. This standard extends to the depiction of substance abuse, eating disorders, and the reckless endangerment of oneself or others… Creators must not put themselves in unsafe situations that could lead to serious injury or death.
Pranks and being a public nuisance:
Creators must avoid actions that cause significant public disruption or panic. This includes pranks designed to incite fear and any conduct that leads to the unnecessary involvement of emergency services
Following local law:
Creators must comply with all applicable local laws while streaming. This includes regulations related to copyright, intellectual property, trespassing, illicit substances, public nuisance, and any activity that may endanger themselves or others.
Even misinformation and AI content like deepfakes:
The sharing of false, widely disproven and unqualified misinformation that can cause real-world harm is not permitted. These principles also apply to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), where we prioritize transparency and the protection of individual identity.
and more.
These new guidelines prohibit a lot of the behaviour that made kick streamers go so viral. Especially being a public nuisance and toying with local law was standard on Kick and brought in major views. The streamers creating such content now have to either go somewhere else or switch their strategy. While it is great that those people now face actual consequences and do not get platformed, this could incite kind of a crisis among problematic influencers faced with losing their platform, their audience and with that, their income.
The freedom and leniency of the website was THE thing that made it different from other livestreaming services like Twitch or YouTube. Many livestreamers were only on Kick because they were banned on Twitch or because they would get banned for their content on there, but not on Kick. So on the one hand it is obviously great that Kick is taking steps to ensure the health and safety of streamers and viewers, it could also mean, if it really does follow though, that there is nothing that makes people flock to Kick anymore if it is basically the same as Twitch and it might lose its relevancy.
