Model mom who was shamed for breastfeeding video before it was deleted gets apology from streaming platform
Live streaming video platform, Twitch on Thursday, August 1, apologized to a mother-of-four from Charleston, South Carolina, whose recent video -- where she was seen breastfeeding her 1-month-old baby while chatting with one of her pals -- was removed by the company officials from the site.
Heather Kent, a fitness model, often live streams her videos on Twitch under the username HeatheredEffect.
While she usually films the content at night once her four kids are asleep, she recently made an exception for her friend, a fellow model, who was only available in the morning.
She sat down for an ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) video with her friend on July 24 as they chatted about the time both of them auditioned for Sports Illustrated.
During the conversation, Kent's little daughter Margaux was awake and hungry.
"She’s my fourth child, and breastfeeding really isn’t a big deal to me," Kent told BuzzFeed News."I was kind of just using it as a test to see if my community would freak out."
Since the platform's community guidelines only prohibited "nudity and sexually explicit content or activities, such as pornography, sexual acts or intercourse, and sexual services," she figured breastfeeding on a live stream would be fine since it did not fit any of the banned categories.
While her followers did not have any extreme reactions to her live stream, it blew out of proportion on Twitter and Reddit after one of her male friends, who went by the social media name TominationTime, made a clip of the moment and titled it, "Normalize Breastfeeding."
As random people started accusing her of "using her baby as an excuse" to expose her breast and "gain sexual attention," Twitch removed the clip along with other parts of the original live stream, with no explanation as to why they were doing so.
Following the deletion, Kent angrily took to her Twitter page to address the unfairness of Twitch's decision.
She told Buzzfeed: "A lot of people who don’t even have kids decided to chime in with their opinions about breastfeeding." "A lot of the things that people were saying, in the beginning, were really hurting my feelings because I've never gone through anything like this before."
Kent hoped "that Twitch will update its terms of service or community guidelines, like Facebook and Instagram and other platforms, saying, 'We’re OK with a woman who’s actively breastfeeding.'"
Her wish was granted on Thursday when a Twitch spokesperson reached out to her and cleared the air about the inconvenience caused.
"After further discussion with Partnerships, Safety Ops, and Trust and Safety there is alignment between all teams that breastfeeding is not and will not be against the ToS [Terms of Service]. As you so eloquently put it, 'breastfeeding is not lewd' and we agree with you," the spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the removal of the clip was the result of a misunderstanding after Safety Ops received reports of the video showing adult nudity.
"Twitch Community Guidelines will need to be updated to provide a level of transparency which will take time but I assure you it's on the agenda. I hope that clears your mind of concern, you did nothing wrong," the statement added.
Kent was overjoyed after receiving Twitch's statement on the matter. "WE DID IT! @Twitch just confirmed what we were saying all along—breastfeeding is NOT sexual & it is NOT against ToS. Moral of the story: Never back down for the things you believe in regardless of the backlash you receive. You can make a difference! #normalizebreastfeeding" she tweeted.
