Hello and thank you for waiting on this write-up of Tuesday’s live stream, as was announced last week.

As of posting this, Wednesday 13th December 2023, there isn’t a publicly available link to an archived version but I will update this post accordingly when the link is published.

This will be a condensed summarisation of the hour-long stream.  This text-only file is for those who may have text-to-speech readers.  I will stick with the facts as they were presented by the Patreon Policy Team’s Courtney Duffy and Laurent Crenshaw.

AGENDA
1.	Guidelines facelift
2.	Age verification of Adult/18+ creators
3.	Transparency Report
4.	Artificial intelligence
5.	Q&A
6.	Wrap-up

GUIDELINES REFRESH
[An image summarising the necessity of ‘face-lifting’ the guidelines to match the new look and new era of Patreon]

[An image illustrating Patreon’s goals with the ‘guidelines refresh as follows:]

•	Taxonomy: intuitive, easy-to-navigate topic categories
•	Detail: more fleshed out language to articulate where “the line” is (referring to what Patreon considers a borderline and outright violation of its guidelines)
•	Language consistency: uniformity of terminology, tense, tone
•	Trust and Safety alignment: language harmony in policy enforcement
•	Page upgrade: physical update in accordance with company rebrand

In light of Patreon's major re-branding in October 2023 (as publicised here and here, on the now-Patreon News site), there will be changes to the Guidelines. 

The Guidelines as they presently stand are currently viewable here: https://www.patreon.com/policy/guidelines

Nothing has been enacted yet as Patreon currently seeks feedback from Content Creators.  Feedback can be submitted here: CreatorPolicy@patreon.com or via the official Patreon Discord server: https://discord.gg/patreon  

Please note that the cut-off date for feedback will be Friday 12th January 2024.
 
This is in response to criticisms of the Trust and Safety Team being too vague and inconsistent in enforcing Patreon’s guidelines and in how they discipline Content Creators who breach said guidelines.  In short, 2024 will see Patreon focus on clarity, consistency and better communication.

18+ Age Verification
[An image summarising what this is]

Who: Creators in Adult/18+ category
What: verifying being 18 years of age or older
Why: to fulfil payment processor requirements
When: required in the coming months (plenty of notice before deadline)
How*: to verify with government-issued ID, go to Page Settings > Adult Content

* If you completed the form last month requesting to verify with alternative (non-government-issued ID) you will hear from us about next steps soon.

I've gone on at length about this, when it was:

•	first announced in October 2021
•	detailed in a live-stream August 2022, which I chronicled the first week of September 2022
•	enforced in 2023 (received an e-mail reminder in March, they live-streamed as such the very tail end of March, though it wasn't until July they got me; I detailed my experience as such here)

So the notable thing to mention here is that there is now a troubleshooting guide regarding the process, viewable here: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/22107198811789

Given the re-brand nullifying the old Patreon Blog, the up-to-date link regarding the how and whys of this policy is now viewable here: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/8335146084877-Mastercard-s-Adult-18-Requirements-An-Overview 

TRANSPARENCY
[An image stating—Spotlight: Patreon’s inaugural transparency report (coming early 2024)]

This will illustrate how Patreon handles illegal or harmful content being reported and its removal from the platform.  The first report will cover what Patreon has done throughout 2023. 

ARITIFICAL INTELLIGENCE
[An image stating---Spotlight: Update on artificial intelligence; mid-year policy updates related to AI]

Clarified: AI porn depicting photorealistic humans is not permitted on Patreon
Reinforced: Zero tolerance policy re: sexualised minors includes AI depictions
Strengthened: Authentic behaviour policies with guidance on AI deep fakes, e.g.:

-	Intimidating, bullying, harassing, encouraging violence.
-	Placing someone in sexualised context they weren’t part of.
-	Portraying public figures to endorse scams or merchandise. 

[An image illustrating Patreon’s awareness of creators wanting protection against their works being scraped for use in artificial intelligence datasets, based on feedback from over 3,500 creators, including quotes from said creators:]

“It hurts that my art is used as AI training data without consent, credit or royalty.”

“Generative AI is competing with me by utilising my own skill mastery against me.”

Patreon will be acting on implementing preventative measures to stop scrapers from collecting and feeding Patreon content into AI datasets.  Patreon says it will be attending South-by-Southwest* in March 2024 to discuss how the platform will protect its users and evolves its policies given the rapid pace of AI developments.

* South-by-Southwest is a conference involving interactive media platforms including music festivals.  It is usually held in Austin, Texas and is referred to by the acronym S.X.S.W.  Patreon has partnered with Spotify (music/podcast platform) and Moment (digital ticket vendor for events), so naturally, this would be key to their ongoing business plans.

Q&A
“What’s all this about Patreon purging ABDL content? …Why without warning?”
For context, late November/early December 2023, ABDL (Adult Baby Diaper Lover) Content Creators found their accounts terminated.  Money was collected from their former Patrons by Patreon but (correct at the time of writing this, 12th Dec 2023) to my knowledge has not been refunded.  Many took to formerly-known-as-Twitter to air their grievances in such numbers, Patreon responded as follows:

“The safety of minors is taken very seriously.  Any recent Trust and Safety actions in relation to sexualised ABDLs were in relation to the Zero Tolerance Policy to protect children and teens.Patreon does NOT permit sexualised ‘age-play’ of adults posing as children of any sort in illustrations, photographs or audio description of any sort, including nudity, clothed crotch shots, using childhood objects as sex-toys or forms of erotica. Any non sexualised works are allowed and this has been Patreon’s policy from the start.  No new policy has been introduced specifically targeting ABDLs.”

There was an admission that this should have been better communicated and as such, the Community Guidelines will be updated with clearer information in the future. For now, the present version of the Guidelines (correct as of 13th December 2023) is viewable here: https://www.patreon.com/en-GB/policy/community-guidelines

Given how... extremely sensitive and recent this issue is, and some people have found themselves in hot water because of a singular piece of content referring to it, even if they're not necessarily into that themselves, or serve an audience as such) I won't be allowing comments on this post.

To make this 100% clear, I am simply repeating what was stated by the Policy Team staffers.  This is not my opinion.

“How are you going to approach content theft, specifically the site Kemono Party (which has) been actively encouraging patrons to illegally upload and distribute Patreon-only content to their website?”
The response to this was that the legal team in California found out who is processing payments for the upkeep of that site's servers, and are actively pursuing a means to curtail funding for hosting the site; after all, bandwidth and storage cost money. Presently, Patreon is working on tools to block scrapers/re-posters – however, there is no foolproof solution to this ever evolving issue. But as aforementioned, Patreon aims to protect its Content Creators the best they can.  

“Photorealism is the goal of many artists in the adult visual novel genre.  Some use 3D models or posers rather than human beings for their artwork; does this mean Patreon will kick those artists off Patreon?”

Ultimately, the line comes back whether it violates the other elements of the Guidelines around pornographic content more than anything else.  That’s how we’re looking at it at this point.  If you’re using tools resulting in works that would otherwise be considered pornography, then that’s not allowed on Patreon.  But if you’re producing ‘artistic works’, then you have nothing to worry about and be in good standing.

“If an Artist creates content off-Patreon, are they safe from being banned if those works have no connection to their Patreon account?”

If you are a creator creating works that contravene the guidelines, irrespective if you’ve linked back to your Patreon or not, that’s your business.  We are only looking at what you link back to Patreon.  If what you produce on a different platform that is not funded or connected to Patreon in anyway, then that isn’t something we’re interested in.

“As transparency is a big issue for a large platform like YouTube, will Patreon warn and allow Content Creators to course-correct before they are outright banned for policy violations?”

Yes.  Use guidelines@Patreon.com for the present, but there will be a new form in the Community Guidelines: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=12546204476173   
A member of the Trust and Safety Team will respond duly.

“Is Age Verification for Audiences on the horizon, as you have made Content Creators verify themselves as being over 18 if they’re producing 18+ Content?”

There are many variables to consider including differing laws between U.S. States themselves, as well internationally.  Patreon will wait and see what the legal and regulatory requirements are in order to take the necessary steps to remain compliant and not have certain communities endangered by proxy.

“Art erotica: allowed on Patreon if it doesn’t break code of conduct on ‘age play’, etc?”

The Trust and Safety Team will assess the content creators’ works for context, but broadly, if at a glance, it does not break the rules, then it is OK.  Erotica is allowed on Patreon, as the platform aims to be a comfortable home for many varied communities ‘as long as it doesn’t break stuff’ (no pornography, no incest, etc.)

The stream ended here with a reminder that feedback can be submitted via CreatorPolicy@patreon.com or via the official Patreon Discord server https://discord.gg/patreon  on the #policy-live-qa channel over the next week (this will conclude 19th December 2023).

Given the length of this post, I will post my thoughts separately.

Thank you for reading.