A number of Twitch channels will go dark on Wednesday, September 1, as a form of protest against the platform. This comes after many streamers claimed Twitch has not taken sufficient action against hate raids, which have plagued marginalized streamers for the last several weeks.
As reported by The Verge, the #ADayOffTwitch blackout was planned by ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack, and RekItRaven as a follow-up to the Twitter campaign, #TwitchDoBetter. The Twitter campaign was led by RekItRaven as a way to pressure Twitch into providing better tools and protections for streamers on its platform. The issue first came up a few weeks ago when “hate raids” began happening regularly, where a flood of bots would come into a streamer’s chat, all spamming the same racist or bigoted comments.
While Twitch did release a statement on Twitter about the #TwitchDoBetter campaign, however, it did not provide any specifics about what it was doing. It released a second statement a week and a half later to address the fact that it did not take any action against hate raids. However, all it said was that it’s working on it and does not what to let the people organizing these raids know its plans.
The #ADayOffTwitch blackout was organized as an attempt to force Twitch to take immediate action to protect streamers against hateful actions.
“A Day Off [Twitch] is largely about coming together in solidarity. The one day off is a step in the many steps we have to take towards change,” ShineyPen told The Verge.
RekItRaven also said that the blackout was more about smaller streamers banding together than actively hurting Twitch’s profits. The response among the community has been varied, with some streamers feeling like the blackout is pointless and others unable to take time off due to contractual obligations.
A note about #ADayOffTwitch from the cast & crew of our streamed show.
Please read & remember not everyone is free to take tomorrow off, no matter the level of support they have for the event. pic.twitter.com/Pu6lE8CucQ— Mother LandsRPG: Season 3! (@MotherlandsRPG) August 31, 2021
Some larger streamers have had negative reactions to the movement. Asmongold, a large World of Warcraft streamer who recently transitioned to Final Fantasy XIV, said on a stream, “Nobody gives a f*** if you take the day off. Nobody knows who you are.”
Asmongold went on to say that he believes in the power of numbers and would participate if a big streamer got involved, despite being a large streamer himself, having 2.4 million followers on Twitch.
A representative for Twitch told The Verge that they are aware of the blackout and are supportive of the content creators participating. According to Lucia Everblack, the discussion around #ADayOffTwitch shows that it has already been successful in shaping the conversation and pushing Twitch to make significant changes.
“We don’t just want solutions to current problems,” Everblack told The Verge. “We want policies in place so that these kinds of problems never happen again or at least never get this severe.”