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German Twitch viewers see errors when trying to access clips and VODs of their favorite streamers due to German NetzDG. A law that attempts to prevent and combat hate speech and fake news.
In July, German Twitch users started seeing limited access to certain clips and VODs on the platform, causing an error code saying “This premium content is not available in your region”.
Viewers nationwide started asking Twitch Support for help as they couldn’t understand why they were limited to crucial parts of Twitch.
Almost an entire month passed until the support team revealed that the restriction was due to Germany’s Network Enforcement Act, also known as NetzDG. “We took a closer look at the problem and it is a restriction due to the NetzDG,Twitch support responded.
German viewers started seeing this error code on the site in July.
What is NetzDG?
NetzDG is called Network Enforcement Act in Germany. The law passed in 2017 aims to fight hate speech and fake news on social networks. The main target of the law was Facebook, with some calling the law the “Facebook Lawâ€.
NetzDG demands that all hateful content be blocked within 24 hours, but Twitch has apparently decided to block all highlights, VODs, and clips, even though the creator is not based in Germany.
In July, the German designer Gronkh received a message from Twitch, informing them that a user in Germany reported the creator for violating the Network Enforcement Act. Twitch reviewed the content and found no violations, so no action was taken.
This was spotted earlier here https://t.co/NMklYarhTK and also by the german streamer @Gronkh last month here when one of his vods was reported and he got this message: pic.twitter.com/SbI48FGD9a
– Saysera (@ Saysera69) August 6, 2021
Currently, the only solution for German viewers who wish to access restricted content is to try their luck with an incognito browser, but content can also be geo-blocked if a user reports it.
If the content is geo-blocked, the only solution is to use a VPN.
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