Twitch files legal action against two users allegedly behind ‘hate raids’

After a months-long wave of harassment targeting marginalized streamers, Twitch is suing two users for allegedly carrying out so-called hate raids on the streaming platform, in violation of its terms of service.

Twitch’s lawsuit names two defendants, Twitch users CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose, and allege they are responsible for some of the recent “hate raids” on Twitch. The term refers to when malicious actors use the platform’s “raid” feature to flood a creator’s chat with hateful messages, often using bot accounts.

In the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Twitch said it “spent significant resources” investigating and banning the two users, as well as implementing security measures put in place. up to date. However, the company said both sides continue to engage in “illegal, fraudulent and highly offensive activity” and violate Twitch’s Terms of Service. The lawsuit was first reported by Wired.

Twitch said it discovered that the CruzzControl account was “responsible for nearly 3,000 bot accounts associated with hate raids,” and said both accounts created software code to conduct automated hate raids and evade Twitch efforts. to block platform robot accounts. At the time of filing, Twitch was unable to confirm the identity of the account owners, but stated that CruzzControl is located in the Netherlands and CreatineOverdose is located in Austria.

“We hope that this complaint will shed light on the identity of the individuals behind these attacks and the tools they are exploiting, deter them from adopting similar behaviors at other services, and help put an end to these vile attacks on members of our community, ”a Twitch spokesperson told Polygon via email.

Hate and harassment are long-standing issues on Twitch, but marginalized creators have reported a recent increase in harassment and hate raids targeting them. In response, a group of streamers staged a walkout to protest the rise in hatred and called on the Amazon-owned platform to better protect its marginalized creators.

“This is a show of good faith on Twitch’s part. So many people have been touched by this and no one committing these acts should feel comfortable with anonymity,” said ReketitRaven, an organizer behind the walkout, to Polygon on Twitter. “This problem has many fronts though, and we need to understand that people are still suffering.”