Streamers Boycott Twitch for a day
Written by Amos Gikunda - Wednesday, Sep 8, 2021 at 7:48am
Lack of action from Twitch led a group of streamers to Boycott the platform for a day on September 1st. Thousands of streamers joined the movement that was started by users RekitRaven, Shineypen, and LuciaEverBlack. The minorities are receiving a lot of hate, racial and sexist slurs from spambots. It mostly occurs when the streamers go live with an influx of bots repeatedly sending the same message with toxic slurs.
The protesters hope that they will draw enough attention from the Company. Luckily several streamers with a massive following have joined the movement to support the minorities. Hashtags like #ADayOffTwitch #SubOffTwitch and #TwitchDoBetter have been trending on Twitter since 1st September when the Boycott started. Here are some of the requests by streamers to twitch.
Actions Streamers want Twitch to lay hold of
According to a flyer making rounds on Twitter, creators are asking Twitch to take the following actions:
Roundtable Discussion:
Twitch needs to reach out to the affected creators and hold a roundtable discussion to help create and implement a comprehensive and proactive toolset to fight abuse on the platform.
Proactive protection:
Creators are pleading with Twitch to create and implement proactive protection immediately that will enable streamers to allow or deny incoming raids. Besides this feature will allow users to select the right age of the prospective chatters.
Limit Emails to 3 accounts only:
Currently, a Twitch user can create unlimited accounts using one email. This can be used to create a swarm of raid bots. If Twitch limits this number, then it will be easier to manage the accounts that are abusing streamers.
Transparency:
Twitch should provide transparency of the actions that they are taking to protect its creators. For example, it should produce a timeframe and involve the safety advisory council as they take the said measures.
Twitch released a statement saying they have been building a channel-level ban evasion detection and improving accounts for several months. However, the bad actors always find a way to bypass these solutions. This is why they prefer not to share every detail.
Twitch responds with a Subathon
Twitch runs a Subathon every September to help creators increase their subscribers. This event runs throughout the month. Despite the Boycott taking place, the Subathon will begin on September 3rd, 2021 as scheduled.
What’s Next?
By the time of writing this, Twitch has received 800,000 views less than their daily average. This is a good sign indicating that the protests are gaining attention from a huge viewership. The conversation still remains until Twitch takes the necessary action. I think we might see some big changes in the platform soon. The spambot problem has not originated from Twitch, all the Social media platforms face the same issue. They need to create a solution as soon as possible.
Final Thoughts
Past Twitch boycotts have been unsuccessful but the creators are hoping to make a significant change this time around. So far close to a million people have participated in the movement. Some streamers have extended their boycott to several days as they continue to spread the word. We are hoping that Twitch will make a move to protect every creator on the platform equally.
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