After all the drama surrounding the new Twitch Safety Advisory Council, CEO Emmet Shear has released a statement in order to clarify the council's role and Twitch's position on comments made by "Deer Girl" FerociouslySteph.
In the note posted to Blog.Twitch.tv, Emmett starts by acknowledging that there are a lot of questions and concerns about the council, specifically: what role it will play, what power it has, and to what degree it represents Twitch. Emmett concedes that when they announced the council they could have been clearer about what the council will and will not be involved in.
As Emmett explains, the council is not a moderation task force. They will not be involved in any specific cases of streamer moderation or have access to details about cases. He states clearly and directly that the council members "are not Twitch employees, and they do not speak on Twitch's behalf. While we value their opinions and their right to share them, they are independent actors who will have opinions that aren't shared by either Twitch, Twitch employees, or even by other members of the council."
The statement is specifically responding to complaints about council member FerociouslySteph and the comments she has made since her appointment was made public. Steph has met criticism and harassment with repeated claims that she "has power" and that Twitch is endorsing her to go after harmful people, saying "there are some people that should be afraid of me." According to Emmett though, that won't be her (or anyone else's) role on the console.
Emmett explains that the role of the council will be to "advise, offer perspective, and participate in discussion with our internal teams pertaining to the work we do to help keep our community safe and healthy." The council is not a governing body, rather, they are a purposefully diverse group of content creators and industry professionals that Twitch will work with in order to learn more about the wants and needs of the community, as well as how to make Twitch a safer place.
Emmett ends by reminding the community that abuse and harassment will not be tolerated on the platform and that they will continue to take action against anyone that engages in bullying or harassment, something they have certainly had their hands full with since announcing the council. "Harassment directed at council members or anyone at or on Twitch only underscores the importance of the council."
What effect or influence the council ends up having will likely never be directly understood by the community, but it's clear that so far it's done more harm than good. We share council member Cohhcarnage's sentiment when he says that it's disappointing how much the drama has distracted from the true purpose of the council.