Raids are a staple of Twitch and are usually extremely positive. Whenever a Twitch user ends their stream, they have the option to raid another streamer, which is the act of sending their stream’s current viewers to another livestreamer’s chat of their choosing. Unfortunately, there’s been a rise in toxic, “hate raids” aimed at minority streamers, as reported by PC Gamer and others. To combat this issue, Twitch is releasing new tools to help streamers prevent toxicity in their chats.

The #twitchdobetter movement vs. hate raids

The rise of hate raids and Twitch’s lack of tools to counter them from happening has sparked an online hashtag movement called #twitchdobetter. Twitch streamer RekItRaven started the hashtag to bring awareness to the harassment Black creators are currently experiencing on the platform. RekItRaven was a victim of many hate raids and, in an interview with The Verge, they said they and other minority creators became targets because they’re using Twitch’s Black tag, making it easier for trolls to find creators to harass. The movement gained traction quickly and got Twitch’s attention.

Twitch’s response

Twitch recently responded to the movement, tweeting, “You’re asking us to do better, and we know we need to do more to address these issues.”

The platform goes on to say that it has identified “a vulnerability in our proactive filters” that’s allowed hate raids to happen. It then said it had released an update that will help patch up the gap in its filters. The filters now should be better able to detect hate speech in creators’ chats.

Additionally, Twitch says it will roll out more safety features soon. The platform mentioned features like account verification process and ban evasion detection tools. These tools will make it so that people can’t make new accounts to harass creators.