Twitch backtracks on highlight time limits, lets users appeal copyrighted music claims

Video livestreaming platform Twitch recently announced changes to its plans to mute copyrighted music in user videos and limit users to two hours of saved highlight videos.

Earlier this week, Twitch said it was partnering with software company Audible Magic to "scan past and future [videos-on-demand] for music owned or controlled" by its clients. The company also announced plans to remove the "save forever" function, effectively removing old video content from the site. Users could keep their content indefinitely if they split it into "highlights," which can be kept in chunks of up to two hours.

Today's announcement changes some of this. Effectively immediately, Twitch is removing the maximum time limit on highlight videos. This means that while a lot of archived content will still be removed from the site, highlight videos will remain, and users will not be limited to two-hour chunks.

Twitch is also deploying an "appeal" button for videos that have been flagged for copyrighted music by the Audio Recognition system.

"We recognize that the system is not yet perfect," said Twitch's VP of marketing and communications, Matthew DiPietro. "We want to make this system as fair and unobtrusive as possible, and we greatly appreciate your help."

Read our explainer on what Twitch's latest changes mean for you.