Twitch is in the crosshairs of some of its users. On Twitter, the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch (“A Day Without Twitch”) spread, prompting a boycott of the live streaming platform for Wednesday, September 1. Those who are behind the movement denounce online harassment, deemed to be more and more recurrent on Twitch.
With #ADayOffTwitch, the streamers, who share live content on the platform, want to attract the attention of the social network, which they deem unresponsive to the “hate raids”, which have become more important this summer.
Today is #ADayOffTwitch and honestly – it feels cathartic.
I’ll be spending this time with my family, gaming and hanging with friends and just taking a fucking breath.
This is not the end. But fuck, I am going to enjoy today.
That’s #MyDayOffTwitch
– (@RekItRaven) September 1, 2021
Today it’s #ADayOffTwitch .
Launched mainly in the states in relation to the various hate raids concerning marginalized creators / creators, the initiative consists in not using the site but especially in advancing the ban / moderation tools to prevent this! pic.twitter.com/iDGlRa03pU
– mistermv (@mistermv) September 1, 2021
This phenomenon results in massive attacks in which a group of users invest the conversation space of a streamer to saturate them with insults. Some stalkers even create bots, computer programs designed to automatically generate large numbers of discriminatory messages. The skin color, gender identity, sexual orientation or religious denomination of the victims are often targeted.
The Twitch boycott movement was notably launched by the one who calls herself RekItRaven. This black and non-binary 30-something (that is to say who does not identify with the male or the female gender) uses the platform to broadcast her video game games live. She has gained enough notoriety to make it her job: as an “affiliate”, the young woman is paid for the content she shares.
“Twitch must do better”
But for some time now, RekItRaven can’t connect without being agony of name-calling. So much so that it now mobilizes volunteer moderators at each of its online sessions, in the hope of blocking its stalkers. Refusing to see this situation continue, the young woman first created the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter (“Twitch must do better”), to ask the platform, owned by Amazon, to develop better tools to protect its users.
The social network has promised fixes, but those who experience hatred online believe the response is slow in coming. They therefore organized this day of boycott, more as a sign of solidarity between victims than to penalize Twitch. “I think it’s important to come together for the sake of everyone who has been affected and to show that we won’t back down,” RekItRaven told The Verge.