Twitch boycott: Black and LGBTQ broadcasts took a day off the platform

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Twitch users RekItRaven, LuciaEverblack and ShineyPen launched the #ADayOffTwitch campaign, imploring users to stay dark on Wednesday and asking viewers to support streamers in other ways, such as going through PayPal or Patreon.
All three users have modest follow-ups (with over 4,400 followers, RekItRaven has the most), but their hashtag inspired countless other streamers, including those with over a million fans, to take the day off as well. One preliminary report of Twitch journalist Zach Bussey showed on Wednesday at one point that 5,000 fewer users were broadcasting and 500,000 fewer viewers watched than at the same time just a week earlier.

Now, organizers expect Twitch to meet their demands and adopt new policies to protect them.

In a statement to CNN, a Twitch spokesman said the platform supports “the rights of streamers to express themselves and draw attention to important issues of our service.”

“No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they represent, and we’re working hard to improve channel-level ban detection detection and further account improvements to help make Twitch a safer place for creators “. the statement was read.

Repeated racist incidents caused users to start the day off

Twitch is a place where streamers, usually gamers, interact with users in real time, often while playing a video game. Its users include the e-sports title Ninja, T-Pain and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But users like Raven, Whoever asked CNN not to use his full name out of concern for his safety said color flags and LGBTQ TV bands are often bombarded with hateful comments. Raven, who is black and uses the pronouns he and she, has shared playback videos in which suddenly dozens of identical messages appear in a live chat, all containing racist insults, a phenomenon known on Twitch as a “hate raid. “. They told CNN that events have only increased since they started tweeting these videos with the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter.

While platform racism has always been an issue, Raven said, “the scale of abuse has increased to the point that marginalized people EXPECT to be attacked by hatred.”

Twitch officially bans black face, swastikas and Confederate flag in new specific guidelines

User ShineyPen, who works with Raven on the Underworld charity team, suggested to Raven that the two pursue a “blackout,” or a day when both of them would avoid broadcasting from their channels. Lucia Everblack, a transgender broadcaster, joined them. Raven said the trio had planned to take the day off later on Sept. 1, but sped up the process after users began “streaming xxx”, sharing their personal information online.

So they launched their campaign, #ADayOffTwitch, on Twitter, where it quickly spread. Leading Twitch users, such as left-wing commentator HasanAbi, who has more than 1.5 million followers and faces his own controversy after buying a nearly $ 3 million home, the day off was taken of transmission, too. Others who had contractual transmission obligations were not taken on the day off, but their support was echoed with messages of solidarity.

Omega Jones, who writes as CriticalBard and is a member of the LGBTQ-focused Rainbow Arcade Stream team, did not air on Wednesday in support of #ADayOffTwitch. Jones, who uses the pronouns “they and he,” said they have been attacked by several hate raids and “robot tracking” or a deluge of users (who may be fake accounts or robots) who followed Jones at once. , with Nazi symbols. like your photos.

PogChamp’s emot has been suppressed by links to Capitol violence
In January, Jones was chosen as the platform’s “Pogchamp of the Day,” a temporary Twitch icon in which a person (or reptile) is captured in an expression of open-mouthed surprise or joy. When his photo was released, however, he was overwhelmed by racist comments and death threads, he said, and outlets like The Verge and Screen Rant reported on how he was treated.

“To be honest, he was becoming overwhelming,” Jones, who has more than 16,000 followers on the platform, said in an email to CNN. “As one of those affected, it shouldn’t be on my shoulders to have to leave the place for a day, but that’s what it’s become.”

Jones, whose Twitch channel is the main source of revenue, said breaking a day of Twitch is just the first of a series of steps users should take to demand a change.

“For this move to be a complete success, a day of Twitch abstention will not be enough,” Jones said. “We need constant support, a constant look at the Twitch security team and we need to keep talking.”

A Twitch spokesman directed CNN to comments the platform in August, when Twitch said it would launch “improvements in ban evasion detection and channel-level account verification” later in the year to combat robots, though he said later hate raids “are the result of highly motivated bad actors and do not have a simple solution.” He also urged users to report “flagrant attacks” and said his security team is doing everything possible to eliminate the robots when they are detected.
“This is not the community we want on Twitch and we want you to know that we are working hard to make Twitch a safer place for creators,” Twitch he tweeted last month.

According to streamers, how can Twitch improve

One way to end hate incursions, Raven said, is to “give creators control of their spaces.” For Raven and her fellow #ADayOffTwitch organizers, this means that creators can decide who can enter their chats based on the age of their accounts (many of the accounts that make racist comments are less than a day old), he said.

Jones said the platform should end “mass account creation,” as a user can attach their email address to more than one account and create countless more with different email addresses.

Raven and Jones said none of them are ready to leave Twitch yet. They both expect the platform’s security team to take important steps to protect them and other creators from the marginalized groups.

“My IDs aren’t exclusive to Twitch,” Raven said. “I’m Black and weird 24/7/365 and that will follow me wherever I go. I don’t want to leave. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.”

Raven said they have been in touch with Twitch since the platform unveiled their videos of racist comments from viewers. They can’t say much about their conversations, but they said the people they spoke to “actively work as quickly as possible to make it harder for these things to happen.”

Jones said he has had no news from Twitch about his own racist treatment on the platform, so he would like a little more transparency from his security team about the steps they plan to take to improve the experiences of streamers. And meanwhile, he will continue to speak out against the racism he and his fellow Black and Queer Streamers TV faces on the platform on a daily basis.

“I love this place and the community I’ve built,” Jones said. “I will protect my peace, but I will also fight for Twitch to be what it should be.”

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