Promoting a Twitch Stream

YouTube allows videos that promote or link to a Twitch stream. What its spam policy forbids is content created solely to send viewers off YouTube, the rule behind a wave of strikes and terminations in June and July 2018.

A YouTube video may promote a Twitch stream and link to it. The line is in the Spam Policy, which, as read on Nov 10, 2026, forbids "off-platform diversion": "content created solely to drive users off of YouTube to external sites, especially those hosting prohibited material like malware, adult content, or illegal goods/services". A video that is nothing but "I'm live, go here" sits closest to that line, and in 2018 channels received strikes and, briefly, lost whole accounts over it.

What the rules say today

Two policies touch a stream announcement, and neither names Twitch.

The Spam Policy gives one example of off-platform diversion: a 10-second video promising a free unreleased movie that sends viewers to a link carrying malware. The penalties it lists are suspended monetization or a terminated channel, and for some violations the removal of the content with a warning or a strike.
The External links policy decides where a link may point. It forbids links to content that would break the Community Guidelines, and it counts more than clickable URLs: it covers "verbally directing users to other sites" and "encouraging viewers to visit creator profiles or pages on other sites" as links too, in videos, descriptions, comments and live streams. A Twitch channel that follows YouTube's rules is not a forbidden destination. The list of what is forbidden is on Links in Descriptions.

The wording has narrowed since 2018. The Community Guidelines then said, as Polygon quoted them on Jul 12, 2018: "If the main purpose of your content is to drive people off of YouTube and onto another site, it will likely violate our spam policies." Today's text says "solely", not "main purpose", and leans on harmful destinations.

June and July 2018: strikes for stream announcements

In June 2018 the tech channel Linus Tech Tips said it had received a strike for a video telling subscribers its weekly show was live on Twitch. TeamYouTube answered it in public: "You can absolutely create videos that promote or link to Twitch! And there's no new enforcement. As stated in our Community Guidelines, if the content's main/sole purpose is to drive people off YouTube and onto another site, it will likely violate our spam policies." In the follow-up tweets Polygon was pointed to, YouTube gave its own example of the violation: "no audio/video/other info, just a link to another site."

By mid-July, Polygon and Shacknews were reporting creators whose channels had been terminated after short videos teasing a Twitch stream, with no earlier warning. Polygon wrote that some accounts had been reinstated once the complaints spread, and that YouTube declined to comment beyond its tweets. The affected creators told Polygon the rule was old and the enforcement was new; YouTube's tweet said the opposite.

George's case notes

0:00 George Vanous, who ran the Freedom! network, warned his partners on Jul 15, 2018: YouTube had been giving strikes and terminating channels, "some of which have come back", for 30-second videos announcing a Twitch stream, because videos made with the sole purpose of driving users off YouTube were against its rules. His advice in the video was blunt: "stop it".

His notes from that week add two things. He checked one of the publicly reported channels himself: it was terminated when he looked on Jul 13, 2018 and back online on Jul 14, 2018, a reversal within about a day. A second creator in the notes titled a video about the same experience "YouTube deleted my channel (for 24 hours)". And he wrote down how he read YouTube's answer for his own partners:

"You can announce a Twitch stream only if the announcement has other content."
"A short "Hey, we're doing a stream" is not allowed."
"YouTube has long forbidden videos that primarily "drive people off of YouTube"."

That reading is his, drawn from YouTube's example of a video with nothing in it but a link. YouTube never published a minimum length or a checklist for an announcement, in 2018 or since.

What this means for a stream announcement

Read against today's wording, a video that has its own content and also mentions a stream elsewhere is the case TeamYouTube said is fine: a highlight, a recap, a preview of what the stream will cover, with the link in the description. The video whose only content is the instruction to leave is the case the policy's own wording describes. A mistaken removal can be appealed, and a first Community Guidelines violation is usually a warning, not a strike (Community Guidelines Strikes); the route back from a termination is on Channel Termination. Streaming on YouTube at the same time is a separate question, covered on Live Streaming.

What we think

We think a wave like July 2018 is unlikely to repeat. A first violation now usually brings a warning, which the creators of 2018 said they never got, the policy's word has moved from "main purpose" to "solely", and its only example is a malware link, not a rival platform. Our prediction is that YouTube's Spam Policy still will not name Twitch or any other streaming site a year from now, and that no reputable outlet reports channels terminated for stream announcements in that time.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Nov 2027.