Twitch Emote Rules – What To Do If Your Emote Was Rejected

Every affiliate channel has the ability to upload at least one Twitch subscriber emote to their channel. There are many unique choices that are approved and shared all over the platform, but there are some things you can’t put on a Twitch channel.

Here is a list of the things that will prevent your emote design from being approved:

Twitch Emote Guidelines for What You Can’t Do

1. 1. Another Streamer’s Emotes

   You cannot use an emote that another streamer developed or commissioned from a designer. These emotes belong to their channel. 

2. 2. Hateful Speech and Conduct

   Twitch has policies in place to limit hateful speech and conduct on its platform. While there are several ways that communities have gotten around these policies, they do deny emotes that portray hate. These include images or text that include symbols, slurs, stereotypes, and any other type of hateful imagery. 

3. 3. Individual Letters or Characters on Twitch Emotes

   You are not allowed to used individual letters or characters as a part of your emote. This is because people could use emotes to spell out explicit things on others’ chats and get around channel-muted words. 

   Note: The exception to this rule is that some partners may be able to use a letter in their emote if it is a part of their established logo or branding. 

4. 4. Any Form of Harassment

   Emotes that depict any form of harassment will be denied or removed from your account. These include bullying and statements that that threatening or abusive toward any person. Emotes that show any sort of targeted insults also fall under this category. 

5. 5. Violent Imagery or Threats

   Any emoticons that display violent imagery or threatening gestures toward others will not be approved on Twitch. This will include depictions of murder or suicide. It could also include images of weaponry in some cases. 

6. 6. Obscene Gestures or Gore

   Do not create emote designs that have extreme imagery. This will include depictions that include violence and death. Anything with gore, severe injury, or blood may be denied by Twitch to keep things easy for everyone to see. 

7. 7. Sexual Content

   Emotes with imagery or text that show any sort of sexual content will be denied from the platform. Anything that shows sex, masturbation, gestures, arousal, or sexual aids will be denied on the platform. 

   Note: the one exception to this rules is gasm-style emotes (such as the Kreygasm global emote). 

8. 8. Nudity

   Emotes that show nudity, even in comic form, will be rejected on Twitch. This includes nude torsos, genitals, anuses, and buttocks. Underwear has also been known to be rejected from time to time. 

9. 9. Illegal Drugs and Drug Use

   Emotes that show drug use or are images of drugs will be denied when submitted to Twitch. These include all illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia. If you are unsure about a particular substance, you may want to wait until you are partnered so that you can ask someone for guidance. 

10. 10. Explicit Phrases or Gestures

    Don’t create emotes that show vulgarity. These will include explicit or obscene words and phrases or anything that represents them. This rule also covers obscene gestures, gang signs, and similar imagery. 

11. 11. Violations of Twitch Guidelines

    Any emote that encourages people to break Twitch’s terms and conditions will be denied. Make sure that you understand all their terms before you consider potential design ideas. 

12. 12. Political Content

    Political emotes are banned on Twitch. This can include phrases, party symbols, political figures, slogans, and anything else that may be deemed political. While you are free to discuss politics on your channel, Twitch won’t allow people to use your political thoughts to bother those who may disagree with you on their platform. 

13. 13. Animations

    Animated emotes are not supported on Twitch. The exception to this rule is for Cheermotes that are set apart for partners. 

14. 14. Twitch Asset Violations

    You are not allowed to use Twitch assets as a part of your emotes. You need to adhere to the Twitch Brand Assets Guidelines. 

15. 15. Any Imagery Based on Global Emotes

    It is against Twitch guidelines to create emotes based on the Twitch Global Emotes. You cannot use any of the images and build on top of them. 

    There are two exceptions to this rule. You can have up to 2 Kappa derivatives on your channel and 1 VoHiYo derivative, though you can’t use the original assets of VoHiYo. These emotes must adhere to every other emote rule.

What to Do if Your Twitch Emote is Rejected

If you break any of the above terms, your emote is likely to be denied by the platform. If your Twitch emote is rejected, take note of the reasons why and make the necessary changes before you resubmit it to the platform.

Your emote may have also been rejected due to human error (such as an accidental misclick) or because of the personal preference of the individual who reviewed it. 

1. Read the Response That Came with the Rejection

   Typically, there will be a message with the rejection notice that states white the emote cannot be used. If that message is missing, it could be due to a glitch in the system where many emotes are automatically rejected.

   If you can’t determine anything wrong with your remote, then resubmit it. While twitch warns against resubmitting and emotes multiple times, if they didn’t give any reasons why it was rejected, try resubmitting it once. If it is rejected again, you may have to dig deeper as to why your emote isn’t accepted.

   If there was a message explaining why your email was rejected, make any necessary changes before resubmitting it.

2. Ask Other Streamers about Banned Emotes

   If you can’t figure out why your remote was banned, don’t be afraid to ask other streamers if they can see what’s wrong. Sometimes, you may have inadvertently created something that is inappropriate to another culture.

Can You Be Banned for a Bad Twitch Emote?

Twitch can permanently ban you for using a “bad” emote. In fact, there have been a couple of instances where they have banned a user for using an emote that one of their staff previously allegedly accepted. 

While this won’t happen often, and often the emote will only be removed instead of a ban, it is something you should keep in the back of your mind. Take care in which emotes you put on your account.

Banned Twitch Emotes

The following emotes were banned for a variety of reasons:

1. Koredell Baby in a Toilet

   Kordell was banned for his emotes, including this one featuring a baby in a toilet. 

2. OG ROB Face

   OG ROB is a Nigerian streamer who uploaded an emote based on his image with the term “Nig” (for Nigerian) in the title. It was banned for its name. 

3. SHiFT’s Spongebob Squarepants

   SHiFT’s Spongebob Squarepants emote was rejected until the line drawn indicating its underwear was removed. 

4. Dansgaming “Nude” Toilet Emote

   A Dansgaming emote was banned for “nudity” despite it being a cartoon character on a toilet.