Sexual Abuse Problem Twitch Keeps Claiming it’s Fixing
Sexual abuse on Twitch is problem across that platform that is still trying to be fixed. Twitch is commonly called out for ignoring problems the community has or pushing them to the side. Partnered streamers on Twitch have had multiple instances of being called out for pressuring other streamers and viewers into sexual encounters or being pressured into them at annual gaming events. Twitch has publicly stated online that they take sexual harassment and misconduct extremely seriously. Streamer Samantha Wong has come out and said that they have dismissed her sexual harassment and even still promote that streamer who harassed her.
Twitch could be handling this sexual abuse problem much more professionally and efficiently. Women on Twitch have came out a lot more recently in the past months about how they are treated on the platform and the comments they receive and go through every time they stream that men do not have to go through. Twitch representative said “Twitch is not a free speech platform. We have community guidelines that set boundaries about what’s acceptable on Twitch, and that includes rules banning hateful content, language, and behaviors that put our community at risk.” Even though Twitch has these guidelines in place streamers and viewers still experience so many hateful comments and sexual abuse from this platform.
Twitch channels have barely any moderation at first for small streamers and is mostly controlled by the streamers as well on what is being said in there chats as well as on there streams. People could say streamers should just have more moderators taking those people out saying sexist comments in streams or comments that make the streamer uncomfortable. Some bigger streamers have so many comments coming in at once and only so many moderators or bots that are cleaning their chat is only the bare minimum of what Twitch should be doing.
If Twitch says they have community guidelines and are already facing problems with them they should implement more into those guidelines. Twitch could implement many things such as more moderators on staff that go around and moderate many channels at once and just go from channel to channel seeing what is going on and just make sure guidelines are being followed. Right now, Twitch does not or rarely go into specific streams and see what is being said live and usually waits until after it has happened and often takes no action on what was said in that persons stream.
Twitch and other platforms should also collaborate and work together on cleaning up these situations. Some big-name streamers who have banned on Twitch for sexual allegations can easily switch and move to another platform and stream as if nothing happened and still even be promoted by that other platform. This is bigger than just Twitch but needs to start with them trying to work with other platforms on cleaning up the community and making it as safe as possible for every streamer not in fear of being attacked by viewers or streamers online or in person on every streaming platform.
