With the rise of bot-powered hate Raids, marginalized creators on Twitch have organized a protest to raise awareness about their experience on the platform and demand immediate action from Twitch. Today, many streamers are taking a day off streaming in solidarity with Black and LGBTQ streamers who have experienced hate Raids.
The #ADayOffTwitch protest, organized by streamer RekItRaven along with LuciaEverblack and ShineyPen, wants to put an end to hate Raids. At this time, Twitch has addressed the issue of hate Raids but hasn’t taken any immediate actions to stop it.
#ADayOffTwitch protest demands action
ADayOffTwitch has a list of demands that it hopes to pressure Twitch into implementing. First, protestors want the platform to allow streamers to either approve or deny incoming Raids. This ultimately would allow streamers to block any Raids they suspect are hate Raids.
Second, protestors want an age questions tool for chat — preventing accounts under the set age from sending messages in the chat.
Lastly, the protest hopes to remove the ability for people to link more than three accounts to one email address.
Twitch’s response
In response to TechCrunch, Twitch says it plans to address all of the demands the protest has laid out. They say they’re currently working on improving channel-level ban evasion detection and additional account improvements to improve streamers’ safety.
Hate Raids often take a significant toll on marginalized streamers and even threaten their safety. There have been instances where Black and LGBTQ streamers have had their addresses leaked online. We hope that the protest results in Twitch implementing more features to combat hate Raids. Likewise, we hope the protest results in a much safer environment for marginalized streamers on Twitch.