Twitch took a bit of time, but it has finally issued an official statement to its streamers in the wake of the "A Day Off Twitch" campaign.
While no full copy of the statement's content has surfaced (at least none yet), GameRant reports that it aims to address the issue of the hate raids fully and has been sent directly to the inboxes of streamers recently. It allegedly acknowledges the harassment that many content creators have experienced via hate raids.
The message from Twitch purportedly begins by insisting that all streamers on the platform should never have to experience any malicious and hateful attack from anyone, be it a fellow content creator or a viewer. The statement also expressed gratitude to the larger community for asking the company to implement several anti-hate speech measures.
One will notice that this is all some generic corporate-speak that companies like Twitch are obligated to say whenever they get hit with a crisis like this. However, one potentially interesting thing in the statement mentions hosting a Creator Camp on September 15, which is intended for people who want to use the site's current moderation tools better.
In light of these "hate raids" on Twitch streamers (which has led to the platform losing considerable traffic), some live streaming tool providers have joined in. Streamlabs, which has released a new "Safe Mode" feature that helps protect content creators from hate speech on their broadcasts, reports PCGamer.
While Twitch continues to work on site-wide solutions, the likes of Streamlabs will be any Twitch streamer's best friend when it comes to curbing the increase of hate speech on the platform.
Twitch Boycott At A Glance: What Is 'A Day Off Twitch'?
For the uninitiated, Twitch has been in hot water recently following site-wide protests from content creators. The protests, which used the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch, directly answered the rising frequency of hate speech-filled campaigns on the platform known as "hate raids."
In these "raids," a bunch of viewers would spam the chat boxes of Twitch streamers who are known members of marginalized communities/minorities, all while using the platform's "raid" function. Several of the comments include homophobic, sexist, and downright racist tripe, which prompted streamers to take action.
The movement was started by Twitch streamers ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack, and RekitRaven, according to The Verge. But prior to the boycott, RekitRaven already started a #TwitchDoBetter hashtag on social media to encourage people to share their experiences with harassment and hate speech on the platform.
A Massive PR Nightmare
To say that Twitch is now in disrepute is a massive understatement. Despite being the world's arguably largest streaming platform, Twitch is not only losing viewers but also a few big-name creators that made their name there. Among them is Tim "TimTheTatMan" Betar and Ben "DrLuop" Lupo.
They'll have to fix this immediately if they don't want to lose whatever shred of credibility they still have left.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
