Can you Smoke Weed on Twitch Stream?
While nudity is very clearly against Twitch’s Terms of Service, smoking weed is a very gray area. Nowhere in the Twitch TOS or Community guidelines is cannabis directly mentioned. It leaves you wondering, can you smoke weed on Twitch? And the answer is that it depends.
First, we’ll review Twitch’s community guidelines before digging deeper into their Terms of Service.
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Can I Smoke Weed on Twitch?
Maybe. Are you breaking the law or using what Twitch calls “self-destructive behavior”? Here’s what we mean:
Twitch’s Breaking the Law section of their community guidelines states:
“You must respect all applicable local, national, and international laws while using our services. Any content or activity featuring, encouraging, offering, or soliciting illegal activity is prohibited.”
According to these community guidelines you can smoke weed if you live in a legal marijuana state or country. So if you live in California where cannabis is fully legal for adult use, you can smoke. But you must be over 21 years old. However, it’s not advised since it’s still fairly controversial.
Twitch’s Self Destructive Behavior section of their community guidelines states:
“Activity that may endanger your life, lead to your physical harm, or encourage others to engage in physically harmful behavior is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: suicide threats, glorification or encouragement of self-harm, intentional physical trauma, illegal use of drugs, illegal or dangerous consumption of alcohol, and dangerous or distracted driving.”
Again, the most important word here is illegal. So it’s safe to say that if you are smoking weed while streaming in an illegal region, you are breaking the law. For instance, if you live in Alabama, Idaho or South Carolina you are violating the TOS since those are fully illegal states.
Unfortunately that’s potentially very serious. It means that you’re not only in breach of the Twitch TOS but that you might get reported. And if reported you may even face prosecution.
Is Smoking Weed on Twitch against TOS?
As mentioned, the Twitch Terms of Service makes no direct mention of smoking, vaping or using cannabis while streaming. In other words, it’s not directly against their TOS policy. However, there are a few terms that you should keep in mind before deciding to light up.
Term 9. Prohibited Conduct states, “YOU AGREE NOT TO violate any law, contract, intellectual property, or other third-party right; not to commit a tort, and that you are solely responsible for your conduct while on the Twitch Services.”
This means, if you live in or are visiting a state or country where weed is illegal and smoke while streaming, you are violating the law.
That said, you may want to tread carefully. Twitch reserves the right to ban you if it’s clear that you are smoking in an illegal region. This is clearly stated under Termination of the TOS.
Term 14. Termination states, “To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Twitch reserves the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate your license to use the Twitch Services (including to post User Content) and to block or prevent your future access to and use of the Twitch Services, including where we reasonably consider that: (a) your use of the Twitch Services violates these Terms of Service or applicable law.”
Can you Vape on Twitch?
Much like smoking, vaping isn’t advised. But if you’re in a fully legal region you shouldn’t run into trouble. This is especially the case if you follow these tips to avoid getting banned for smoking weed below.
Tips to Avoid Getting Banned from Twitch
- Set to Mature Audience – If you’re worried about potentially getting banned but live in a legal region and want to smoke, set your stream to Mature. This is one way to prevent underage viewers from seeing your stream, and potentially putting your account at risk.
- Avoid Promoting It – Perhaps smoking is a way of life for you; you’re a self proclaimed stoner and proud of it. Even so you may want to avoid bringing attention to it and especially promoting any items you use. For instance, it’s best to avoid showing or promoting your method of consumption be it a blunt, pipe, bong, rig or vape. It should be as understated as grabbing some chips to munch on and little more than that.
Tread Carefully
Ultimately, it’s your decision. But if you’re worried about being banned and want to play it safe it’s probably best to avoid smoking at all on Twitch. However, if you are in a fully legal marijuana region, you shouldn’t run into trouble.
The real problem arises if you are smoking in an illegal state in which you would want to avoid smoking weed on Twitch entirely. Also, if you are actively promoting weed use or you haven’t set your audience to mature, you run a greater risk of getting banned. At the end of the day, Twitch reserves the right to ban whomever they feel is a danger to the platform.
There’s no better way to know for certain than to go directly to the source yourself. You can find the Twitch Terms of Service or Community Guidelines here.
