How much power do users have to influence the ways tech companies govern their platforms? This week, prominent Twitch and Reddit users separately coordinated two platform-shaking actions with the goal of making the digital spaces they work and play in safer. In the latter case, at least, it appears they've already seen results.
On Twitch, top streamers went on strike Wednesday under the banner #ADayOffTwitch to push the company to end an ongoing wave of harassment against marginalized streamers. On Reddit, meanwhile, moderators made dozens of subreddits private to protest the company's policies around Covid misinformation. Speaking with WIRED, organizers are cautiously optimistic that their actions helped spur change.
“Maybe I’m a dreamer,” says Twitch streamer Raven. “I think we need to normalize being able to really make change on our own.”
Raven, who goes by RekItRaven on Twitch, helped lead Wednesday’s #ADayOffTwitch initiative in response to an epidemic of harassment on the platform known as hate raids—a huge, often coordinated bot attack that floods streamers’ text chats with bigoted vitriol. Over the past month, trolls and their bots have regularly entered Raven’s Twitch channel and filled their chat with derogatory language, including messages like, “This channel now belongs to the KKK.” Harassers have targeted and published Black streamers’ addresses and personal information, too, leading to reported incidents of doxing. While hate raids have been a perennial issue on Twitch, the problem has dramatically escalated over the past month.
Last month Raven launched the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter to pressure Twitch to prevent the bot accounts from harassing them. Soon after, Twitch acknowledged the problem, tweeting on August 11 that “we know we need to do more to address these issues.” The company added that they were able to “identify a vulnerability” in its filter system and rolled out an update to more comprehensively identify hate speech. However, the hate raids roiled on.
