Streamers Are Taking A #DayOffTwitch In A Stand Against Hate Raids

Don't be surprised to find many streamers offline today as some creators are taking a day off Twitch today, acting in solidarity with marginalized creators who have recently been targeted by bot attacks and hate raids.

On Wednesday, multiple streamers chose to take a day off Twitch to voice their protests against frequent hate raids that have been plaguing creators for the past few weeks, all using the hashtag "#ADayOffTwitch" to promote their message.

The protest was co-organized by Twitch streamers ShineyPen, Lucia Everblack and RekitRaven and aims to bring public attention to the recent wave of hate raids on LGBTQ+ and POC creators, with the attackers employing bots to spam abusive messages in chat.

There is an immediate announcement I need to make. In light of the wave of hate raids targeting marginalized streamers, RekItRaven</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ShineyPen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">ShineyPen and @LuciaEverblack Are planning #ADayOffTwitch on 9/1/21 I have started my weeklong blackout today because I dont stream wednesdays. pic.twitter.com/gPEdTfTByu

— #ADayOffTwitch SaFireSunSet 🏳️‍⚧️ (@SaFireSunSet1) August 30, 2021

The list of streamers taking a day off streaming in solidarity with the protest includes Ponk, Seapeekay, Gibi, MegTurney and many others.

The protest, however, was met with mixed reactions from some in the streaming community, as many streamers wrote that taking even one day off streaming would damage their channel and their income.

Reminder to not send any hate to those who choose to or are contractually obligated to stream during #ADayOffTwitch We want to stop hate raids not contribute to its negativity

— Apricot(Froot)💀VSHOJO (@LichVtuber) September 1, 2021

Among those who vocally criticized the protest was the well-known MMORPG streamer Asmongold, who said he would not be taking part in the protest during one of his streams.

Nobody gives a f*** if you take a day off. Nobody knows who you are. That's the truth. And if people got together and they said, "We're all gonna collectively do it," I would do it in a heartbeat, I would have no problem, because I do believe in power in numbers.

The raids saw a massive jump in frequency in early August 2021, with Twitch rolling out a number of changes to help amend the situation.

We're launching channel-level ban evasion detection and account verification improvements later this year. We’re working hard to launch these tools as soon as possible, and we hope they will have a big impact. Check out more on our existing tools here: https://t.co/Dku6eBhY72

— Twitch (@Twitch) August 11, 2021