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Twitch sued two users who allegedly bombarded people of color and LGBTQ people with racist, sexist and anti-gay content while streaming and creating alternate accounts to avoid being banned.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleged that starting in August, users CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose were using bots to conduct “hate raids” on streamers who identify as racial minorities and / or members of the LBGTQ community. , spamming their chats with a torrent of racial slurs, personally identifying information, descriptions of violence against marginalized communities, and links to gore videos.
Nearly 3,000 of CruzzControl’s alleged bots have been linked to multiple hate raids, “including those targeting black and LGBTQIA + streamers with racist, homophobic, sexist and other harassment content,” the lawsuit said. User CreatineOverdose is also said to have “used its bot software to show how it could be used to spam Twitch channels with racial slurs, graphic descriptions of violence against minorities and claim that the hate looters are the KKK.”
Although the platform first suspended and then permanently banned the known Twitch accounts of these users, they reportedly created new accounts and continued to modify their self-described “hate raid code” to avoid being tracked down and banned. again, the prosecution said.
The harassment they allegedly sparked was so relentless that some streamers were forced to stop broadcasting on the platform, Twitch said, “eliminating a significant source of income.”
“These attacks hamper chat so much that victimized streamers cannot engage with their community via chat for the duration of the attack, and some even choose to avoid streaming altogether until the attack is over. “said the lawsuit.
The lawsuit does not identify the individuals behind the accounts, although Twitch said it would amend its complaint if it was able to determine their legal names. But he identified CruzzControl as a person located in Baarto, the Netherlands, and CreatineOverdose as a resident of Vienna, Austria.
Twitch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company said it has “spent significant resources” on combating hate raids, including investigating CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose, making technology fixes, and educating streamers who have suffered hate raids on how to moderate their discussions. . But because these users have repeatedly violated its terms of service, “Twitch has suffered and will continue to suffer prejudice, entitling it to injunction, damages, attorney fees, fees and / or other fair measures, ”the company said. .
Even with its latest legal effort, many users interrogates the platform’s commitment to preventing harassment and protecting its users beyond recent hate raids.
Twitch, which has been around in its current form since 2011, has long struggled with harassment on its platform. In June 2020, dozens of people filed sexual harassment and assault charges against popular streamers in the Twitch community, and many said the company continued to promote and support those accused.
As attacks on people of color and queer gamers escalated in recent weeks, users have organized a boycott of the platform under the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch, resulting in nearly 20,000 fewer streamers than average that day and 400,000 fewer viewers than the week before, The Washington Post reported. Many users also expressed frustration with the persistent harassment with #TwitchDoBetter.
Twitch has attempted to address these concerns somewhat. In December, it updated its hate content and harassment policy to explicitly ban hate groups and be tougher on sexual harassment, among other changes. In April of this year, Twitch announced that it would start banning people who harass other users offline and on other platforms.
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