Twitch may add ‘brand safety score’ for streamers

Cybersecurity researcher Daylam tayari found evidence in Twitch’s internal API that the site plans to implement something called a “brand safety score” for its streamers. This score would depend on a number of criteria: the age of the streamer, a rating given by Twitch staff, their banning history, the streamer’s relationship with Twitch, their self-mod settings, their partnership status, the ESRB rating of the game being played, and whether the stream is configured to mature.

If Tayari’s research is indeed accurate – and here I must note that I contacted Twitch and will update this story if I hear back – it would represent a change in the way advertisers interact with streamers. on the platform. Currently, one of the primary ways that marketers work with streamers on Twitch is the site’s bounty chart; some partners and affiliates in the US, UK, Germany and France can choose from a list of paid opportunities to play games or watch branded videos with their communities for automatic payments. It’s a pretty nifty system, which streamlines and automates the (sometimes arduous) process of working with a brand and getting paid for it.

It’s not hard to imagine that if Twitch actually implemented a Brand Safety Score for streamers, it would be used to extend the bounty program; it seems useful for brands to be able to at least compare streamers on this specific axis. Then again, for streamers, this means that the site is following you on another metric which may or may not be available to you. I can’t help but think about the Uber and Lyft ratings, and how quietly insidious they can be: If your rating is messed up for some reason, you lose your ability to drive – to make money.