A Month Later, Twitch Boycott Organiser Looks Back on What Has (and Hasn’t) Changed

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Jared Moore

“Those messages in chat called me the hard -er, for existing.”

"I feel so empty and just wish things were different."

"I'm tired of existing in a space that literally doesn't want me in it. It's more than fucking exhausting.”

These are the words of just a few marginalized content creators who’ve been subjected to discriminatory language and hate speech while streaming content on Twitch in recent months. Individuals who’ve been targeted not for anything that they’ve done, but for who they are. It's become a consistent enough issue, with little to no recourse, that a group of streamers decided to make their disappointment known to Twitch, its community, and the world at large.

This was never more notable than on September 1, during the #ADayOffTwitch boycott organized by streamers ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack, and RekitRaven. To show support for marginalized creators under attack from botting and hate raids, the protest saw a number of streamers on the platform abstain from streaming throughout the day as those involved demanded that Twitch take further action.

In terms of its material effect, the social media campaign left a noticeable mark on viewership site-wide. As per GamesBeat, data provided by analytics firm Gamesight suggested that Twitch lost around one million viewers during the boycott – resulting in the site's lowest total from this year. Even when factoring in extenuating circumstances, Twitch analyst Zach Bussey reported that the protest could have resulted in between a 5% to 15% decline in Twitch viewership.

But beyond that immediate impact, what has the lasting effect of the boycott been? A month later, I caught up with organizer RekItRaven to discuss their views on the overall impact of the protest and to look back on what has – and hasn’t – changed for those involved since it took place.

“I think we did better than we thought and that we proved that small voices do matter in this space,” Raven says when asked to give their overall thoughts on the boycott. “I think it was successful because we initially set out to do it to raise awareness and we did exactly that.”

Prior to the protest, fellow organizer ShineyPen spoke in an interview with The Verge where he explained that the boycott was “largely about coming together in solidarity” and, by doing so, ensuring that the community could take one of “many steps” that would help to push for change on Twitch.

What this means to say is that the protest wasn’t aiming to end hate raids altogether in one fell swoop – though nobody would have complained had that been the case. Instead, #ADayOffTwitch was organized to present the streaming community as a united front and keep pressure on ensuring that Twitch held up to its promises of taking much-needed steps in the right direction.

Raven makes it clear that the campaign was successful in uniting an array of streamers against the issues at hand. “I think it has made a lot of us more aware and brought a lot of us closer. There's power in solidarity,” they said when speaking about the direct impacts that the boycott had brought on. “I think [in the] short term we're starting to see some subtle changes in the way the platform has been handling a lot of the issues that have been brought up. We see more people talking about it, sharing their stories, sharing safety tips.”

For all of the campaign's successes in bringing its community together, however, hate raids do still continue on Twitch. Raven explains that while raids are being better managed in some circumstances – in part thanks to third-party tools such as Twitter user @SeryCodes’ sery_bot, which looks to target and stop hate raids in action – the problem for many streamers still persists.

“A lot of the time, any of the messages that come in are deleted in my channel and aren't seen. My mod team is able to ban accounts preemptively, but I'm lucky. I have access to that, not everyone does,” says Raven. In order to evoke changes that would most benefit the community, Raven believes that creators on the streaming site deserve to be able to take power back over their channels in order to ensure their safety.

Since my conversation with the content creator, Twitch has thankfully made its first real steps in allowing that to be possible – no doubt down to the message that the boycott sent. This week, the streaming platform released phone verified chat – an update to its suite of moderation tools that allow content creators to better manage who can and cannot interact in their chats during streams.

In a post explaining the update, Twitch said, “Phone verified chat gives Creators finer control over who can participate in chat, by allowing them to require some or all users to verify a phone number before chatting. Together with updated, more granular email verification settings, Creators will now be able to use email and phone verification in tandem to meet their specific needs.”

This is a change that could have a lasting positive impact on the efforts to keep safe Twitch's marginalized community, forcing users to be more accountable for their actions and presumably making it more difficult for those engaging in targeted hate speech to repeatedly abuse a person’s stream.

Following the announcement, Raven tweeted about their thoughts on the changes. “This is a great step,” they said. “It's not the only one, but it's good to see some serious changes happening on the platform to make sure that creators are kept safe.”

“Also, not gonna lie… I'm actually crying setting this up,” Raven continued in a separate tweet. “My settings are in. I feel like I have some form of power back. As I stated before this isn't the only thing, but it's massive. We have been heard, and continue to be heard – We have and will create change.”

Even though the changes show a step in the right direction for the platform, many members of the community will feel that Twitch’s actions lacked proactivity and took far too long to implement. The streaming platform acknowledged this during its post, but said that it was committed to continuing efforts to mitigate harm on the site moving forward, and will add "a new channel-level ban evasion tool in the coming months".

Unfortunately, Twitch isn't the only place creators are being targeted. As part of our conversation, Raven explained that some streamers within the community have faced problems that extend past the reach of the streaming site. “Some of the attacks have escalated off the platform and some people have been put in serious danger,” said Raven. “Right now, it's scary for so many of us […] Creators are still struggling for safety. There needs to be more transparency in how to navigate this when it leaves the platform, because it has.”

As a community, the last few months have left many people hurting. Raven highlighted a need to keep pressure on Twitch, but was also keen to point out that going forward many of its creators will need to take time to look after themselves. “Yes, we need to keep the heat on Twitch,” they said. “But we also need to take care of ourselves first, nurse our injuries, heal our wounded before we get back into battle.”

To aid that healing process, Raven is currently focusing on a number of projects that aim to help those most affected by the issues. “Right now, I'm working with a few NPOs to try to figure out how to successfully raise and distribute funds to people who are affected financially by all of this. I'm also looking to work with legal help and try to raise money for retainers/legal fees for anyone who may need it and I'd like to organize a network of entertainment lawyers to help with this,” they said.

Amid the wait to see if and how Twitch’s new verification tools create a safer space for streamers to work in, I concluded by asking Raven if they could see further boycotts of the streaming platform in the future should the desired outcome not be reached:

“I can,” they replied. “I think it's important to be able to hold people accountable for their actions or lack thereof. I would hope that people feel empowered to make positive change in these spaces and situations.”

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

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