Twitch disables new Boost Train feature after promoting porn – Mashable

If there’s anywhere on the internet where rule 34 is likely to thrive, it’s Twitch, the streaming platform predominantly used by gamers. Yet somehow, the Amazon-owned company seems to have been taken by surprise when its new Boost Train feature enabling the paid promotion of streams started recommending porn to its audience.Launched in October 2021 to a select number of growing streamers, the now disabled experimental feature promised creators the potential to get their channel promoted to the top spot of Twitch’s main homepage. The paid boosts were modeled after a similar yet more community-driven feature, which only allowed organic engagement from viewers to get a streamer’s broadcast pushed onto Twitch’s “Live channels we think you’ll like” section.But by changing the barrier to entry from community activity to a pay-to-play model instead, Twitch allowed anyone with enough cash to get whatever content they wanted officially recommended. Soon enough, NSFW screenshots began surfacing on Twitter and Reddit of live broadcasts with topless women and the “Promoted by streamer’s community” banner in the thumbnail.”Looks like determined trolls are literally paying for accounts with access to the Boost Train… and then literally creating hype trains to get porn onto the front page,” streaming…
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