Twitch Streamers Protest Hate Raids

Several well-known Twitch streamers refused to go online on Wednesday, September 1, because of the protest called #ADayOffTwitch. This action aims to bring attention to the numerous waves of hate that the authors have encountered on the platform.

Loud Message for Twitch

Created by Twitch streamers named ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack, and RekitRaven, this strike aims to raise the issue creators are dealing with on their favorite platform. The strike was due to the #TwitchDoBetter movement. This trend came up by users affected by the "hate raids" that have erupted on Twitch recently. While spamming a person's chat room with transphobic, racist, sexist, and more impermissible messages is not unusual, the situation has skyrocketed as viewers found a way to use bots to send messages.

However, many popular streamers did not refuse to broadcast on this day, even though they publicly supported the idea. For some streamers who may have also been victims of raids, it is simply impossible to participate in the strike because Twitch is their only way to make money. There are also variations of advertising deals or partnerships that keep streamers from missing out.

Raid Effect on Community

How do "raids" affect twitch streamers? Twitch introduced more than 350 new tags this May to help streamers express themselves to the audience. But streamers from LGBT communities, people of color, and other oppressed groups have faced backlash from bots.

While the streamer is online, bots independently generate offensive messages in the chat. Twitch developers have promised that they will soon release tools to combat bots, but for now, streamers have to fight the hate waves on their own. There is a panic button that limits the number of messages for users and filters offensive nicknames.

Cyberbullying is a hot issue of our time. What do you think about this protest? Will it help to solve this problem or not? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.