Twitch streamers to hold one-day ‘blackout’ to draw awareness to ‘hate raids’

Twitch streamers are planning to hold a one-day blackout in hopes of raising awareness of a practice called “hate raids,” Axios reported on Monday.

The blackout day, which went viral on Twitter through the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch, is set to take place on Sept. 1. Streamers on the platform are participating in the movement to support those impacted by “hate raids,” in which groups of malicious users send dummy and bot accounts to fill a streamer’s chat with abuse, according to The Washington Post.

The raids often target users from marginalized communities with floods of hateful slurs and symbols. 

Users began to post their experiences earlier on Monday under the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter, started by RekItRaven and other streamers.

Raven and other streamers on the platform say that Twitch has been neglectful by not correcting the issue. 

“Every marginalized identity creator I know has at least one story, baseline, even if they don’t stream regularly,” one user PleasantlyTwsd told the Post.  “The thing that’s most terrifying is that the hate is aimed at all of us equally. Size, frequency, status — none of it matters. They look out for the marginalized identity and go to work.”

I wanna share some information that I learned after this AM’s hate raid. #TwitchDoBetter

1. My chat’s been in followers-only mode & the raid started seconds after “creatineoverdose” followed and posted a weird message in my chat (I’m assuming to see what they could send) 1/ pic.twitter.com/CvpB7MDZ8b

— karen – #BlackLivesMatter now more than ever (@thesistakaren) August 19, 2021

While Twitch has made an effort to remove bot accounts in the past, its moves did not significantly impact dummy accounts targeting marginalized users, the Post reported.

“I think it’s important to come together in a display of solidarity with those who have been affected by these hate raids,” Raven told Axios.

Updated 11:08 p.m.