United States of America (USA) civil rights advocacy organization Color of Change has teamed up with Black streamers to demand Twitch improve its commitment to fix the platform’s abuse issues.
This comes following several instances of localised abuse on the live-streaming platform in the past 12 months. This led to the #ADayOffTwitch movement which saw streamers striking to garner support following abuse.
According to a report by Eurogamer, both groups have written an open letter addressed to Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear and the platform’s leadership team as part of a campaign, “demanding that [Twitch] make [its] commitment to Black streamers transparent and tangible, now.”
“At a time when Black streamers continue to be harassed by racist users and left unprotected from online hate, these short-term, performative Black History Month initiatives are sorely inadequate.”
Earlier this month Twitch said it is taking legal action against anti-LGBTQ+ hate raids – which are where masses of users and bots flood a streamers chat to hurl abuse at them.
Color of Change is also demanding that Twitch boost the discoverability of Black streamers on the platform, provide them support on the Front Page, and ensure Black streamers feel safe whilst they are live streaming.
