Twitch Won't Let You Call People "Simp" Anymore

Starting January 22nd, 2021, Twitch will no longer allow users to call others "Simp," "Incel," or "Virgin." The terms are banned under the site's updated anti-harassment policy.

“We will take action against the use of terms like ‘simp,’ ‘incel’ or ‘virgin’ specifically when they are being used to negatively refer to another person’s sexual practices. Using these terms on their own wouldn’t lead to an enforcement but we would take action if they were used repeatedly in a harassing manner," a Twitch spokeperson told The Verge.

The news began spreading yesterday when gaming journalist Rod Breslau noticed the added rule and launched a thread criticizing it for not addressing the greater issues at hand.

Twitch now says that you can no longer call others 'simp', 'incel', and 'virgin' as they are now against TOS, along with any emotes relating to the term simp

Twitch baby, what is you doing?

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) December 16, 2020

people online are absolutely overusing these terms that they're meaningless, and losers constantly misuse terms like simp to attack anyone who says anything nice about women. however this likely won't address either of these problems. so perfectly on brand for Twitch rules

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) December 16, 2020

Others were in agreement that the ban seemed like a band-aid on a much larger issue of harassment on the platform.

Twitch staff when they ban 'simp, 'incel', and 'virgin' instead of addressing any of the multitude of their recent failures. https://t.co/Ah6d9FQ4EP pic.twitter.com/9a6kbokmcB

— вʟм | Ultima (@UltimaShadowX) December 16, 2020

Twitch after they realize that people will start calling others orbiters and white knights after blocking the term #simp pic.twitter.com/KlA6D62lnO

— Mythic Origins (@MythicOrigins) December 17, 2020

Using the words simp, virgin, and incel are now bannable offenses on Twitch. Glad the super marginalized male demographic is safe at last.

— Clara Sia | 📢 #BlackLivesMatter | SeriouslyClara (@seriouslyclara) December 17, 2020

While many commenters seemed to feel that the incoming ban was ineffectual at best, it harshly affected at least one user: Vsauce, who had to "cancel" his incoming stream on Strongly Interacting Massive Particles.

i have been forced to cancel my twitch stream about dark matter candidates. pic.twitter.com/jyDjyQZ3R7

— Vsauce (@tweetsauce) December 16, 2020