Emote Guidelines
You should only create emotes that adhere to Twitch’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. This applies for both the emote’s imagery and name.
Most emotes can be used globally across Twitch in any channel. As such, emote names and imagery should be appropriate for all users.
Emotes that are acceptable when static may not necessarily be acceptable when animated, as it may change the perception of the emote.
Examples of content prohibited from use in emotes includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Hateful conduct, such as offensive slurs, symbols, stereotypes, and imagery
Exaggerated human features and caricatures related to stereotypes of different cultures and races
Harassment, such as targeted insults, bullying, and threatening or inciting abuse
Emotes such as “Owned” or “Noob” are fine so long as they do not violate any other emote guidelines, but if the demeaning emote targets an individual or group, it will be denied
Threats of violence, such as threats against others and threats of suicide
Obscene content, such as extreme or gratuitous depictions of violence, blood, gore, severe injury, and death
Cartoon or slapstick injury or minor blood is not against our guidelines, though any form of photo-realistic examples will be denied
Sexual content, such as depictions of sexual acts (sex, masturbation), arousal, gestures, aids, and attire
Gasm-style emotes (emotes imitating the Kreygasm global emote) are permitted, however, the inclusion of bodily fluids or implied bodily fluids such as saliva may result in an emote being denied
Fetish or fetish-adjecent emotes, including fetish-wear such as emotes with characters in bondage, will be denied
Nudity, such as depictions and imitations of torsos, buttocks, genitals, and anuses that are nude
Humanized buttocks on non-human cartoon characters will be denied. However, providing buttocks are covered, non-human character emotes may be accepted. Note: when animated, these may be denied.
Implied nudity, such as the purposeful cutting off before nudity begins or censored bars/blurs will be denied
Emotes including characters or people wearing underwear, swimwear, or having exaggerated areas such as buttocks and breasts will be denied
Illegal drugs, such as depictions or references to illegal drug use, drugs, and drug paraphernalia
In addition to content prohibited by our Community Guidelines, we also prohibit the following from use in emotes:
Vulgarity, such as obscene or explicit words, phrases, gestures, or implied urination and defecation
Glorifying or encouraging violations of our Community Guidelines
Politics, including political phrases, symbols, flags, and figures
Individual letters and characters
Single letters such as “L” and “W” even if held by a character or on a keyboard key will still be denied on this basis.
Partners are granted exception to this restriction so long as the letters/characters are a key element of their established logo or branding.
Violations of Twitch Brand Assets Guidelines
Emotes based on Twitch Global Emotes
Attempted reuploads of deprecated Twitch Emotes such as the original “PogChamp” and “BlessRNG” emote will be denied
The only exceptions to this are Kappa and VoHiYo derivatives, which are authorized for use only under the following limitations:
Max of two Kappa derivatives per channel.
VoHiYo derivatives may not use or appear to use original assets.
Kappa and VoHiYo derivatives are not exempt from any other applicable policies.
Severe abuse of emote submissions, including severe policy violations and repeated submissions of content previously rejected or taken down, may result in a penalty on your account. Such actions may include: removal of content and/or suspension of account(s).
Respect Intellectual and Artistic Property Rights
You should only create emotes for which you have all necessary rights. It’s a violation of our policies to create emotes that include unauthorized uses of another person’s content, brand, image, or other rights. Failing to do so, may expose you to a takedown request or legal liability. Twitch reserves the right to remove such material from Twitch. Examples of content you should not use without permission or other authorization include:
Content that you do not own or otherwise do not have the rights to use on Twitch
Assets and content from other Twitch creators and channels.
Another person’s artwork or photographs.
Content sourced from other types of media, such as games, movies, and TV shows.
Another person or organization’s name, logo, and other identifying marks.
The likeness of another person (such as the face of a celebrity or athlete).
FAQ
I think an emote violates Twitch’s rules. How do I report it?
If you find an emote you believe violates the Subscriber Badge and Emote Guidelines, please report it via the User Report tool.
In order to report a subscriber badge or emote, select a reason appropriate for the violation in question and specify the content you wish to report in the description, such as the emote prefix and code for subscriber emotes.
I am bothered by an emote showing up in my channel but it does not violate Twitch’s rules. How can I avoid seeing it?
If you do not like seeing an emote in your chatroom on your channel, but it does not violate any of our guidelines, you can still hide it from appearing in your channel by adding it to your Channel Banned Words filter. Words - including emote codes - added to this filter box will appear in your chat as ***.
What about subscriber emotes?
All subscriber emotes are subject to additional policies detailed in the Subscriber Emote Guide. Please keep in mind subscriber emotes aren’t just for use or present on their respective Partner or Affiliate channels; subscriber emotes can be used globally across Twitch services, so these guidelines may be more restrictive.
Why does X have Y emote when mine was denied?
Users can unlock automatic approval for emotes through good standing, removing the requirement of manual review. Additionally, our guidelines may change after previously accepted emotes have been reviewed. As such, emotes sometimes remain available for some users that may no longer be consistent with our current guidelines. If you find an emote you believe violates the current Subscriber Badge and Emote Guidelines, please report it via the reporting tool.
I have had X Emote for years! Why was it only now removed?
Our guidelines can change over time and what was previously allowed might no longer be and vice versa. Good standing allows users to upload emotes that bypass manual review, however, all emotes can be reported. If violations are found, emotes are removed regardless of the length of time they were available on Twitch.
Why were some of my Emotes instantly accepted and some were held for review?
We understand it can be a confusing experience when you upload an emote and get instant approval, and at a later time, upload another emote that takes longer to be approved. Until you unlock Good Standing instant approval, your emotes will be approved either by automation or through manual human review. You can learn more about how we utilize machine learning for emote approval in this published blog post.
