Twitch offers new security measures after rise in hate-raids. But will it be enough?
After many streamers experienced hateful bot spamming, Twitch is is offering a solution. But will it be enough?
Content warning: racism
Anyone who spends time in Twitch chat knows that hate is commonplace. Most of the time the negativity is about gameplay, however lately it's been about much more. Hate-raids are a form of bot spamming that takes over a streamer's chat with obscene and even racist language. These horrible messages have included mentions of the KKK and even the n-word.
On Aug. 6. streamer RekItRaven experienced her first hate-raid. After talking with other marginalized streamers, she realized this was an all too common issue. So, Raven started the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter.
After over a week of online chatter from creators, Twitch finally sent out a series of Tweets addressing the issue. In the first Tweet, they acknowledged they need to do better. While this is a good start, streamers are demanding action. Twitch went on to say that they found a "vulnerability" in their filters and that they've already rolled out a patch to "better detect hate speech in chat."
Later this year, Twitch says, they will be launching "channel-level ban evasion detection" and "account verification improvements". The hope here is to lower the number of bots that get through in the first place.
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Tags and tools
Some creators believe that Twitch's new tag system has made it easier for hate-raids to happen. By using tags such as "Black" or "transgender", trolls can quickly find new victims to harass. Streamers have been requesting a tag system for some time, however, they hoped Twitch would have added more tools to protect creators from abuse.
Apex Legends, which just saw the release of a Black pansexual legend called Seer, saw one of their top streamers experience a hate-raid as well. Ninjayla sent a Tweet shortly after the incident which included a helpful hint streamers can use to quickly stop the spam messages. Called Unique Chat Mode, this feature lets streamers type a command that finds repetitive messages in chat and quickly deletes them.
Until Twitch puts its new security measures in place, Unique Chat Mode, Sub Only Mode and quick-witted moderators are all that creators can rely on. For now, it's unfortunately up to the streamers to control the toxicity that runs rampant on the platform.
