Twitch is once again in the eye of the hurricane, this time thanks to the action of the creators themselves who are suffering the so-called “Hate Raids” when they broadcast. The situation has escalated enough that they have had to organize a protest for a whole day.
And it is that, if that were not enough, the Hate Raids have shown that Twitch does not have effective security measures to fight against trolls and hackers and, worse still, that it does not seem to care what happens to the smallest streamers.
Racist and macho attacks
That’s why there is #ADayOffTwich, a campaign started by three streamers (ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack, and RekitRaven) who have suffered constant Hate Raids in recent months. The idea is that the whole community finds out what is happening and that Twitch is forced to act and find solutions
A Hate Raid is usually basically a person using programs to post multiple messages in a creator’s chat. These messages usually have sexist, racist or xenophobic connotations, so they exist only to hurt the creator. Spam is so annoying that it does not let anyone else participate in the chat and it can go on until the troll wants to.
Twitch has measures like chat for subscribers or followers only, something that is often used by the largest streamers. However, Hate Raids are aimed at streamers with less than 50 viewers, people who represent a minority (Latinos, women, African Americans, transsexuals) so this measure does not help them.
The potential of their channel goes through the interaction since they do not have thousands of subscribers, so using the chat for subscribers will affect their income in the long term, so they are defenseless against attacks.
Twitch look away
Hate Raids have not happened recently, they have existed since Twitch is Twitch, but they happen more and more, especially with North American creators. Many creators are considering changing platforms and Twitch has not intervened.
On the part of the Amazon company there is only one statement that claims to be positive, but does not offer solutions.
We support the rights of our streamers to speak up and call attention to important issues throughout our service. No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they stand for, and we’re working hard to improve channel-level ban evasion detection and additional account enhancements to help make Twitch another place. safe for creators
They have even changed the date of the “Subtember” event to September 2 to not coincide with the #ADayOffTwitch protest. So his strategy has been to ignore the problem.
The idea of the protest is that no creator streamed today Septem ber 1. Many creators in Europe have joined, despite the fact that Hate Raids are less frequent in their community, however, few are known or great. More creators are expected to join the protest as daylight hours go by and not streamed today, but there is no official list.
And it is that, above all the bigger ones, they have contracts and sponsorships that they cannot break. Therefore, it seems that #ADayOffTwitch will not have the expected impact due to the lack of support from the more well-known streamers. An example is Asmongold, the biggest streamer in World of Warcraft believes that the measure will not work, so he has decided not to join. However, he will not be streaming today for personal reasons.
The future of the campaign
The good news is that the campaign has gone well. Viewers and creators alike know it exists, and even if they don’t join today, they may join in the future, there doesn’t have to be just one #ADayOffTwitch.
As a viewer and user, the best way to support is to use the hashtag on Twitter, call your friends and acquaintances to be aware of the struggle of the creators. Remember that each streamer started with few views, so it is important to support each of them, especially if they find themselves in an unfair battle.
For its part, Twitch continues to grow economically, but not in image. The company increasingly generates more rejection for its inaction and its small gestures that reveal its lack of interest. It is worth noting that solving the Hate Raids problem is not easy, but after several months, they have not given public or private signs of trying to solve it.
