Twitch disbands its Safety Advisory Council.

• The Safety Advisory Council, consisting of industry experts, streamers, and moderators, will be disbanded on Friday by Twitch, as their contracts will expire.
• Twitch has been advised by the council to create new policies and updates, develop products and features to enhance safety and moderation, and safeguard the rights of underrepresented groups, as stated on the company's website.
• An email was received by council members on May 6, informing them that all existing contracts would end on May 31, 2024, and they would not receive payment for the second half of 2024.

According to sources and documents viewed by CNBC, Twitch will disband its Safety Advisory Council on Friday.

Nine industry experts, streamers, and moderators comprise the council, which provided guidance on trust and safety concerns related to children on Twitch, nudity, and banned users, among other issues.

Twitch established its Safety Advisory Council in May 2020 to improve its approach to trust and safety on the platform and inform decisions, as stated on the company's website. The council's responsibilities included advising Twitch on creating new policies and updates, developing safety and moderation features, and safeguarding the interests of underrepresented groups, according to the webpage.

For four years, the group provided guidance to the company on issues such as "hate raids" targeting marginalized groups and nudity policies.

On May 6, council members were summoned to a meeting following an email that stated that all contracts would expire on May 31, 2024, and they would not receive payment for the second half of 2024.

The council consisted of advisors such as Dr. Sameer Hinduja, Emma Llansó, and Dr. T.L. Taylor, who were not Twitch employees.

"The Safety Advisory Council will primarily consist of Twitch Ambassadors, as stated in an email viewed by CNBC. In a formal notice in the same email, the company announced the termination of the SAC advisor Agreement, effective immediately, meaning that the second 2024 payment won't be issued."

According to Twitch's website, Twitch Ambassadors are users who have been chosen for their positive impact on the streaming platform.

The length of the contract determined payment for councilmembers, who received between $10,000 and $20,000 per 12-month period, according to a source familiar with the contracts.

Amidst a year of industry-wide cost-cutting and layoffs, particularly in safety and ethics teams, Twitch has decided to terminate its contracts with the SAC. This decision comes at a time when cyberbullying is on the rise, linked to higher rates of adolescent self-harm, and as the collision of misinformation, violent content, and AI usage intensifies, just before the 2024 U.S. election season.

Last year, Twitch let go of approximately 50 employees who were responsible for monitoring abusive, illegal, or harmful behavior, according to sources who spoke with CNBC at the time. The trust and safety team, or T&S, lost about 15% of its staff just as content moderation became increasingly crucial.

Twitch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.