Black Streamers Demand Change on Twitch
Color of Change, an advocacy group focused on racial discrimination, has partnered with several prominent Black streamers on Twitch to demand improvements for creators on the platform.
Twitch faced a barrage of hate raids targeting Black content creators last year. In response, the Day Off Twitch campaign called on the streaming giant to enhance website systems for the protection of marginalized creators. While Twitch implemented phone verification to combat bots, hate raids have once again resurfaced.
In collaboration with Color of Change, Black streamers issued an open letter to Twitch expressing their disappointment with the company’s actions following the initial hate raids. The letter states that although Twitch claims to be “listening to creators and building solutions to help stop unwanted harassment,” it has not provided a timeline for meeting these demands, if at all.
In response to the recent hate raids that targeted content creators in February, the letter highlights three unmet demands from the first Day Off Twitch campaign. These demands include:
- Improved content moderation practices and resources, with a particular emphasis on Black creators featured on Twitch’s home page.
- Establishment of roles and policies to support Twitch users experiencing hate raids or racial slurs.
- A commitment to implementing a racial equity edit to identify and address biases or discrimination within the platform.
A video featuring the experiences of four streamers, namely iamBrandon, A_TypicalQueer, RealMamaEagle, and ItsLadyKit, accompanied the release of this renewed campaign and open letter. The letter provides space for co-signers and will be sent to Twitch as a formal request.