Marginalized Twitch Users Boycott the Streaming Platform

Black and LGBTQ streamers are fighting back against targetwed harassment! On September 1, streamers boycotted the popular streaming service Twitch in protest of its failure in the protection of marginalized users. 

The Amazon-owned platform remains silent while its Black and LGBTQ streamers are regularly the target of racist and homophobic harassment running rampant through the streaming service. 

These Twitch streamers, on the other hand, refuse to stay silent. The campaign titled #ADayOffTwitch was organized by Twitch streamers RekItRaven, Lucia Everblack, and ShineyPen. In order to bring attention to this chronic issue, they urged fellow streamers and viewers to stay logged out in solidarity. This campaign stems from the #TwitchDoBetter movement which also addresses botting and harassment in Twitch chats. 

We are continuing the fight.

Shout out to @LuciaEverblack and @ShineyPen for helping me with this!#ADayOffTwitch
September 1st, don't go live. pic.twitter.com/dU1ycC9YtM

— Rek It, Raven! ☠ (@RekItRaven) August 20, 2021

One of the founders, Raven, is Black and queer, and she vouches for her community when she says, “I’m just tired of it.” She says these “hate raids” have been targeting countless of fellow marginalized users for months now. The hate raids are sophisticated programs in which the harassers use bots and fake accounts to spam Black or LGBTQ streamers chats with racial slurs, homophobic taunting, and other powerfully hateful verbiage. 

“I’m tired of feeling like I’m not allowed to exist based off of circumstances that are out of my control, and I know other people are, too.”

A petition was started on Change.org to implement more policies to protect its marginalized users by a Twitch Moderator, Lu Morrow. Morrow revealed she was fed up with “hate raids” when she witnessed one on a streamer’s charity event for Stand Up To Cancer. She said this moment is what drove her to stand up for her community and start the petition. 

“Speaking as a moderator and a woman of color, I was completely devastated that this happened,” Morrow continues. “Twitch, please take action in making the communities of your streamers safer. As a professional in the IT industry, there are features that can be implemented to make your streamers, moderators, and viewers safer [and] to minimize these awful experiences.”

The petition itself currently has more than 17,000 signatures in support of making Twitch a safer space for its targeted users. Some features to be updated, Morrow notes, are enhanced authentication, IP address logging to reduce bot attacks, and creation of harsher penalties for those who get banned from streams. 

Twitch finally caught wind of the streaming drama unfolding and made an announcement the same day Raven announced the September 1 boycott. They revealed they’re currently working on Morrow’s suggestions in addition to including a filter for slurs. 

?No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they stand for. This is not the community we want on Twitch, and we want you to know we are working hard to make Twitch a safer place for creators,” Twitch tweets.

No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they stand for. This is not the community we want on Twitch, and we want you to know we are working hard to make Twitch a safer place for creators. https://t.co/fDbw62e5LW

— Twitch (@Twitch) August 20, 2021

Photo courtesy of Twitter