Over the past month or so, Twitch streamers have been seeing a worrying rise in hate raids, where bot accounts fill someone's chat with hateful slurs, Nazi imagery, and sometimes their real-life information. Twitch's inactivity towards stopping this is causing streamers and their viewers to take A Day Off Twitch in hopes of getting Twitch to better support the marginalized streamers who often get targeted and provide better moderation tools. One frequent raid victim, a black streamer named RekItRaven, told The Verge that she started the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter because "I'm tired of having to fight to exist on a platform that says they're diverse and inclusive but remained silent to the pleas of marginalized creators asking for more protections from hate raids."
Twitch responded to the initial wave of complaints with a thread where they, among other things, patched an update in their profanity filters and announced plans to launch channel-level ban evasion detection and account verification improvements "later this year." "You're asking us to do better, and we know we need to do more to address these issues. That includes an open and ongoing dialogue about creator safety," it adds. However, Twitch haven't offered any more help since then, and streamers have turned to community-developed tools to help combat the hate raids. This is why RekItRaven, ShineyPen, and LuciaEverblack got the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch started to show solidarity among marginalized streamers and get Twitch's attention.
A Day Off Twitch has gotten varied responses. For some, it's not feasible or possible to take the day off due to needing the income from streaming or because of contractual obligations. Others say that, philosophically, taking a day away from Twitch is what the hate raids want. Many small and mid-sized streamers have voiced their support, but the biggest streamers have been quiet about it, or have less than nice things to say. "Nobody gives a fuck if you take the day off. Nobody knows who you are," said longtime World of Warcraft turned Final Fantasy XIV streamer Asmongold. RekitRaven isn't worried about their unwillingness to participate or acknowledge A Day Off Twitch. "All I can say is I'm not worried about that. We're already making an impact. The world is watching.
