Twitch made a change to its API this week that included something called a “Brand Safety Score.” But to this point, the platform hasn’t formally announced what it means or how it will affect streamers.

The internet sleuth who discovered the change to Twitch’s API noted yesterday that this score hinges on numerous factors.

The score accounts for a streamer’s age, whether they’re over 18 or over 21. It also accounts for their ban history, their status as an affiliate or partner with Twitch, their auto-moderation settings, the ESRB rating of the game they’re playing, and whether the stream is set to “mature.”

There was speculation that this score could be used for or against streamers when they looked to earn sponsorships, get advertisement money, or collect bounties. But that has not yet been confirmed by Twitch.

So far, Twitch has only publicly released one brief statement regarding the API change, emphasizing that it hasn’t yet launched any such scoring system.

The change is an experimental one, for now, that appears to be for internal use and streamers’ information isn’t being released to advertisers. 

“We are exploring ways to improve the experience on Twitch for viewers and creators, including efforts to better match the appropriate ads to the right communities,” a Twitch spokesperson said. “User privacy is critical on Twitch, and, as we refine this process, we will not pursue plans that compromise that priority. Nothing has launched yet, no personal information was shared, and we will keep our community informed of any updates along the way.”

For now, Twitch’s Brand Safety Score is practically non-existent and has no impact on streamers.

If and when Twitch decides to announce that the Brand Safety Score system will go public, this piece will be updated with more information regarding what sort of impact it could have on your stream.

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