Use of ‘simp’ in chat doubles after Twitch implements a soft ban on the word

Twitch has banned the word 'simp' - or, rather, the streaming giant would really prefer that you not use it, at least as an insult. The company's newly-introduced policies, banning the use of terms like simp when used as a form of harassment, have already become a meme within the Twitch community. And that's caused use of the 'simp' in chat to double since the ban.

The new community policies "include negatively targeting another person with sexually-focused terms," COO Sara Clemens explained in a Twitch town hall broadcast. "So using terms like 'simp', 'incel', or 'virgin' as an insult to negatively refer to another person's sexual activity is not allowed under this new policy. In addition to the policy change, we're also proactively denying emotes that include the term 'simp', and we'll remove them when reported. We'll keep doing that once the policy changes."

'Simp' was used in Twitch chat an average of 71,000 times a day through the early part of December, according to analytics platform Stream Hatchet. On December 16, the day Twitch revealed its new policy, the term was used 140,000 times.

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