Protests are in, hate raids are out. Take that, Twitches.
Twitch is the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers. It launched back in 2011, and has a whopping 140 million unique monthly visitors, and 26.5 million daily active users. And, the Twitch team brings in around $2.1 billion in revenue each year.
There are over 127,000 live Twitch broadcasts going on at any given time, and with so many people using the platform, it's become prone to 'hate raids'. This is where a group of users use dummy accounts or bots to fill a live-streamer's chat with targeted abuse.
Twitch streamers that have been victims of hate raids are over it. So, they're staging a one-day no-streaming protest, and hoping the movement draws attention and support for them. Then, they're hoping that forces Twitch to make policy changes to address the issue.
Platforms have an increasing responsibility to protect their users: whether that be over misinformation, privacy concerns or even abuse.
On average, we're using social media sites for nearly 2.5 hours a day. It's where we get our news - and our entertainment. And while most of it is fun and games, a lot of it can get pretty dark.
While platforms can't police what people say, they can update their policies to make their spaces safer. We've seen Twitter flag misleading content, TikTok update privacy measures for teens and Facebook moderate content on the Taliban. Hopefully Twitch can reign in its users.
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