Several prominent Black Twitch streamers have teamed up with Color of Change, an anti-racism advocacy group, and issued a list of demands to improve the platform’s conditions for creators.
Last year, Twitch was flooded with hate raids targeting the platform’s Black content creators. Following the hate raids, the Day Off Twitch campaign was launched, urging the streaming giant to improve its systems to protect its marginalized creators. Despite the fact that Twitch implemented phone verification to combat bots, hate raids have resurfaced on the platform.
An open letter to Twitch was written in collaboration with Color of Change, claiming that the company had not done everything it could to protect content creators after the initial hate raids. Some claims from Twitch have to be “listening to creators and building solutions to help stop unwanted harassment,” the letter claims that the company “has not provided a timeline for when these demands will be met, if at all.”
The letter mentioned three demands that were left unmet after the first Day Off Twitch campaign in response to new waves of hate raids that primarily targeted content creators during the month of February. Among the demands are:
- Improved content moderation practices and resources, with a particular focus on Black creators featured on Twitch’s home page.
- There are roles and policies in place to help Twitch users who are subjected to hate raids or racial slurs.
- Twitch’s commitment to a racial equity edit, which would allow the company to identify and address bias and discrimination on the platform.
A video featuring the experiences of four streamers: iamBrandon, A TypicalQueer, RealMamaEagle, and ItsLadyKit was released alongside the relaunch campaign and open letter. Co-signers will be listed on the letter, which will be sent to Twitch as a formal request.