Several Twitch channels have been shut down today as part of #ADayOffTwitch, a massive strike that draws attention to what some streamers say is a torrent of abuse by online trolls.
Traditionally, Twitch's 'foray' feature is used to send followers to another channel after a broadcast ends, helping creators connect and grow their audience.
However, in a 'hate raid', a streamer's chat is awash with abusive language, usually from bot accounts.
The creator or mod must stop streaming to potentially ban hundreds of fake accounts, while viewers are subject to hateful verbiage or offensive images.
Thrown by streamers RekItRaven, LuciaEverblack and ShineyPen, who say they have been subjected to numerous hate raids, #ADayOffTwitch calls for a complete 24-hour shutdown of the platform for 24 hours on September 1, with no streaming, viewing or chat by creators or viewers.
Twitch has met with the boycott leaders and will host roundtables with other streamers to discuss ways to make the platform more secure.
In an emailed statement to DailyMail.com, a Twitch spokesperson said the company supported streamers' boycott of 'the right to express themselves' and draw attention to important issues across our service.
As a result of the blackout, Twitch pushed the launch of its September Gift Subscription Promotion to September 2, to allow the participation of the boycott participants.
Scroll down to see the video
September 1 is #ADayOffTwitch, a massive strike on the platform to draw attention to the torrent of hate raids facing some minority streamers.
Launched in 2011 and purchased by Amazon in 2014 for $ 970 million, Twitch is the largest video game streaming site in the world, according to a Streamlabs report.
It hosts 91 percent of all game streams and more than 30 million viewers a day, 2 million of whom will be at any time of the day.
While it dwarfs the number of game streams Facebook and YouTube get, Twitch has not developed as robust a response to harassment and hate speech as those sites.
#ADayOffTwitch co-founder RekItRaven, a non-binary gender black streamer that focuses on horror games, says they generate a following large enough to be paid as an affiliate from Twitch.
RekItRaven, a non-binary gender black streamer, generates a following large enough to be paid as an affiliate. But they say they are targeted with 'hate forays', filling their channel with sexist and homophobic language.
But their diet is frequently awash with racial slurs and abusive language.
"It gets tough," Raven said in an interview with AFP. "They hate me for the color of my skin or my sexual preferences, when I have no control over it."
On social media, streamers have been encouraging creators and viewers to participate in Twitch's 24-hour blackout.
Raven launched the Twitter hashtag #TwitchDoBetter in early August, encouraging the platform to improve efforts to address so-called "hate raids," bombardments of racist, sexist and homophobic language, which have affected some users.
'It's so heartbreaking to see all the stories of marginalized people on the platform being attacked for something that is out of their control, like their skin color, gender identity, sexual preference or something else.' Raven told Kotaku August 23. 'We shouldn't be afraid to press' go live'.
In collaboration with LuciaEverblack and ShineyPen, Raven launched the #ADayOffTwitch campaign as a complete platform lockdown for 24 hours on September 1, with no streaming, viewing, or chat by creators or viewers.
"A day off [Twitch] it's mainly about coming together in solidarity, '' said ShineyPen, a Filipino trans broadcaster. The edge. "The day off is one step in the many steps we have to take towards change."
#ADayOffTwitch co-founder RetItRaven tweeted that they would be spending September 1 'with my family, playing games and hanging out with friends'
On Wednesday morning, Raven tweeted that taking the day off the broadcast felt 'cathartic'.
'I will be spending this time with my family, playing and hanging out with friends and just taking a breath. This is not the end. But ho ..., I'm going to enjoy today.
Raven launched #TwitterDoBetter in August, but complaints about toxic behavior in the app are nothing new.
In December 2020, Twitch updated its hate and harassment policy, recognizing that women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ + community 'continue to experience a disproportionate amount of harassment and abuse online, including on our service.'
The 'foray' feature on Twitch allows streamers to send their followers to other channels. But in 'hate forays', streamer chats are awash with offensive language and images. Often your women, people of color, and other marginalized users you target
"This is not only blatantly unacceptable," the company wrote, "it also undermines the community we are building on Twitch and threatens the long-term viability of streaming as a career for all who wish to follow."
In April, Twitch updated the policy again to indicate that serious offenses that threaten a user's safety would result in a ban, even if the incident occurred offline.
Such crimes could include violent extremism and terrorism, threats of mass violence and sexual assault, and links to known hate groups, according to Tech Crunch.
"No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they represent," the Twitch representative said in today's announcement.
Twitch has been working for a few months on channel-level ban evasion detection tools and account enhancements "to combat this malicious behavior," they added.
"We are working hard to launch these tools as soon as possible and we hope they will have a great impact," said the representative. But hate spam attacks are the result of highly motivated bad actors, they added, "and they don't have a simple solution."
There are tools available for creators and moderators, including setting their profiles to only accept raids from friends, teammates, or channels they follow, but most would limit the opportunity to grow audience and benefit from the affiliate program.
Banning certain words and phrases becomes a Herculean task, as trolls use surrogate characters and spelling variations.
"We have been continually updating our banned word filters across the site to help prevent variations in hate speech and remove bots when identified," the spokesperson said.
But, they admitted, 'as we work on solutions, bad actors work in parallel to find ways around them.'
