Amazon-owned Twitch bans Amazon account after breast revealed on air

Amazon-owned livestreaming site Twitch has banned an Amazon Prime Video channel after a presenter appeared to accidentally reveal her breast during a live show.

The official Spanish-language Prime Video channel was suspended from Twitch on Sunday, with no public reason given.

However, it followed a segment on the talk show Esto es un Late where the incident took place.

Twitch has strict rules around partial or full nudity on camera.

“For those who present as women, we ask that you cover your nipples. We do not permit exposed underbust,” the service’s community guidelines say.

It also does not permit “sexually suggestive content” such as a camera focus on “breasts, buttocks, or pelvic region”.

The Esto es un Late hosts were at the end of their weekend stream when one of them – comedian Henar Alvarez – lifted up her shirt partway, apparently joking that it was one way to end the hours-long broadcast.

“We’re about to be banned,” she said laughing. “Come on. They’re going to ban us!”

The stream then cut to a title card for a moment – but then returned to the live feed a split-second before Ms Alvarez’s breast vanished from view.

The stream quickly ended – but within a few hours, the channel was banned from Twitch.

Another of the co-hosts – Mister Jagger – tweeted afterwards that Esto es un Late is the “best programme in the world”.

Gaming news site Kotaku reports that it is the first time an Amazon-owned brand has been banned from Twitch.

It is not clear for how long Prime Video Espana’s suspension will last. Twitch does not, generally, make the details of disciplinary action public, and bans can vary in length.

The livestreaming giant also has an appeals process for those looking to have a ban lifted or shortened.

Twitch, which started as a video game streaming site but has transformed into an all-purpose platform, has had several problems over the years with sexually suggestive content.

In the past, women who dressed in a way that some considered suggestive were derisively referred to as “booby streamers” by critics. That led to a 2018 revision of the “dress code”.

More recently, the emergence of the “hot tub meta” – where streamers would broadcast in swimwear from an indoor hot tub – raised similar questions about what is and is not allowed.

Earlier this year, one of the biggest such streamers on Twitch, Amouranth, had advertising revenue pulled from her account – even though she argued she had not broken any rules. – bbc.com