Just yesterday Twitch issued a statement regarding the steps it is taking for protect streamers. “We have seen many conversations about bots, hate raids and other forms of harassment of marginalized creators. You are asking us to do better and we know that we need to do more to address these problems ”. So said the platform, which admitted that it has identified “a vulnerability in our proactive filters and has launched an update to fill this gap and better detect hate speech in the chat” of Twitch. In addition, the company has stated that it will implement security features in the coming weeks, including some improvements to the account verification process. But let’s find out more.
Twitch: Chat optimized for the safety of marginalized streamers
In recent weeks Twitch has worked hard to ensure maximum security for its users. An action that comes in response to the movement #twitchdobetter, started by creator RekItRaven to raise awareness of the harassment that creators of color were experiencing within the platform. “I was the victim of a hate raid for the second time in a week and I shared both the first and the second attack [su Twitter] because they were much sharper than the traditional ‘You’re fat, black, gay’ ”. So Raven told The Verge.
Guess who got hate raided again tonight?
Keep hating, babes. I’m not going anywhere.
And the fact that ya’ll made accounts like “ravens_baboon_lips” and “ravencantbreatheofficer” don’t mean fuck all to me because I’m still here and I’m still ✨thriving ✨ pic.twitter.com/fHtgy1Os2W– ʀᴇᴋ ɪᴛ, ʀᴀᴠᴇɴ! ☠🔪 (@RekItRaven) August 7, 2021
Raid is a popular Twitch feature that allows a streamer to send viewers to another streamer at the end of the live. It is a tool used to increase views, grow communities, and foster connections between streamers and their audiences. THE hate raidinstead, they are the exact opposite. Even if the operation is almost similar. A streamer directs their viewers to another creator – often black, queer, female, or with an undefined gender identity – to bombard them with harassment of all kinds.
For his part, Raven is convinced that he became the target of raids for broadcasting using the Black tag. And like him, many other creators. Since Twitch didn’t mention any of these harassment incidents – nor did she intervene -, Raven decided to re-launch the topic. “I started #TwitchDoBetter because I’m tired of having to fight to exist on a platform that claims to be different and inclusive, but has remained silent in the face of requests from marginalized creators for greater protection from hate raids.”
On the other hand, inside or outside the chats, Twitch really struggles to keep the toxicity away from its App. And despite the efforts made by the platform, the creators have always found themselves in difficulty, and have continually asked for new tools for their safety. For the moment, the App has announced new features for trolls which use non-Latin characters for bypass chat filters. But that doesn’t seem to be enough, at least according to Raven. “I’d like to see creators have more tools to control their experience, like allowing creators to block accounts [creati di recente] from the chat, [e] to approve or reject raids “.