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Twitch Sues Two Alleged Hate Raiders

Hate raids are an ongoing problem on the streaming platform, and Twitch is now taking legal action.

By Jenny Zheng on September 10, 2021 at 10:29AM PDT

Taking the legal route against hate speech on the platform, Twitch is suing two individuals who have allegedly participated in creating and facilitating hate raids against multiple creators.

Twitch has always suffered from toxic chats--namely, comments that attack marginalized creators based on their race, gender, or sexuality--but recently, such activity intensified into "hate raids." Perpetrators of hate raids often use bots to overwhelm the chat with harmful language, usually at a rate that exceeds the streamers' ability to moderate the chat.

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Twitch acknowledged the hate raid problem--in conjunction with campaigns by Twitch streamers that asked for the company to do more about hate raids--and promised that it was looking for solutions. Now in a lawsuit filed on September 9, Twitch named Cruzzcontrol and Creatineoverdose as two individuals who created bots and launched multiple hate raids against racial minorities and LGBTQ+ community members.

The company claimed it "took swift action against Defendants by suspending and eventually permanently banning Defendants’ known Twitch accounts." The two individuals, however, continued to make new accounts and altered their "hate raid code" in order to avoid detection and suspension.

The lawsuit, then, is an attempt to put a firm end to the defendants' participation and creation of hate raids. Twitch believes Cruzzcontrol resides in the Netherlands and Creatineoverdose currently lives in Austria. The real names of both individuals is currently unknown.

Twitch streamers have been dissatisfied with the platform's seemingly slow response to the influx of hate raids. On September 1, Twitch streamers appealed to the platform for solutions and organized a day-long Twitch boycott called #ADayoffTwitch in order to pressure the company to do more about the influx of hate raids. The campaign was a follow-up to #TwitchDoBetter, one that also called for Twitch to offer tools for marginalized creators to defend against hate speech bombardment. Twitch responded to the campaigns on Twitter and promised that it was actively looking to prevent hate raids by "updating sitewide banned words filter" and continual removal of identified bots.

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Looking back on Halo2 MP and the decades that followed and the things said about me & my mom by 12 year olds with Sailer language is something id never change.. Freedom is freedom. Not behavior only you agree with.

Yeah it starts by targeting obvious blatant ugly speech but thats not the goal.

the goal is to have control over what is said. The hate speech is a means to an end. Then again im biased against streamers.

7 • 3 years ago

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Edited By ao_bomber

@sippio:

Sigh... 'Freedom of Speech' means the government cannot arrest or otherwise silence you for what you say in public spaces.

Twitch is a privately owned webspace; 'Freedom of Speech' does notapply to them. Using their site means their way or the highway.... And their way includes 'no hate speech'.

Hell, Twitch or any other social media site can choose to instantly permaban anyone who says 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' for all they care, and no amount of free speech rights or litigation can stop them from doing so. If someone is not okay with that, they are free to use another space or make their own.

7 • 3 years ago

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@ao_bomber: Dude stop saying 'hate speech' like it's your personal policy that it's evil..

Hate speech is whatever they disagree with.

if you say a streamer is overweight or has paperbag face

is that hate speech?

My god mate, what world do you want to live in?

Upvote • 3 years ago

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@sippio: People who argue Freedom of Speech often forget the people they're directing their speech at also benefit from Freedom of Speech, which is to say, telling them to STFU. Those people also have the right to toss you out of their house.

9 • 3 years ago

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@Barighm: Yeha but that's a endless loop.

I could say STFU cause it effected me in 1st place.

Hence the POV that 'feedom of speech is more important then feelings'.

It never bothered me onlibe cause i could mute if i wanted to.

and i often did in GTA online or games with a more immature audience.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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@sippio: Freedom of Speech doesn't mean I can say whatever I want and get away with with no consequences. It just means I can say whatever I want, but I still need to face the consequences of whatever I say.

If I say that I don't agree with how things are being run, I don't have to worry about being swarmed by the government.

But if I say that I would bomb or shoot up the place, I would have the police and government agents right on my front door.

11 • 3 years ago

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@Darkflare_EX: i agree with this Darkflare. 100%

and if that's called 'Hate Speech' then absolutely..

But when it's ' that girl is fat' or 'dude has a pizza face' this is just

an Ahole or jerky behavior esp when directed at a stranger but nothing one should be protected from. How else does one build up immunity to it?

Is that what the kids said on Twitch?

Upvote • 3 years ago

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@sippio: The hate bots are spreading far worse than that. They're set to spam racist and bigoted comments.

Just because you can endure being called fat or ugly, doesn't mean you deserve to be called as such or to be exposed to such childish comments every time you stream.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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@sippio: Please get your head out of the rightwing Qanon conspiracy hole.

Hate speech is not protected under freedom of speech. These people were doing something absolutely horrible and disgusting and they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. I would also love to see Federal hate crime charges against these individuals. Throw the book at them.

Personally, I applaud twitch for taking such serious action. I hope it sets a precedent for other providers in the future.

8 • 3 years ago

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@Swampthing: Swampthing. I simply dont/wont debate with you in anyway cause you resort to namecalling everytime with everyone everytime i see ur comments. I liked it better were you & i talk bout gaming and thats that..

Don't assume i even know what they did. i don't. Nor did i claim to..

**I barely even know what Qanon is except something the left say to people they disagree with. Seriously, i dont know what it is...

ima leave it there. and play Xcom.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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@Swampthing: Bravo. I applaud these actions too. It is amazing to me the conspiratorial tone taken over a website that streams video games and women in bikinis. It is a private business and they have the right to do as they please.

2 • 3 years ago

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@sippio: Who's goal? It is Twitch suing these people, not a govt.

If you look at it from Twitch's perspective, this isn't even really just a "speech" issue since it's not just about what is being said, these guys had apparently setup spam bots. You think people should have a right to spam?

3 • 3 years ago

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Edited By sippio

@2Chalupas: Do i believe spam bots are right?

meaning morally? No. i do not unless the target deserved which i admit i don't know the deats.

Upvote • 3 years ago

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@sippio: Freedom is freedom sure, but it's also the freedom to face consequences.

8 • 3 years ago

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@sbargovox3: I love it when certain politically leaning individuals point that out, as little do they know that they’ll inevitably get caught up in said consequences if given enough time. Case in point being Acti-Blizz and Riot Games and their respective legal troubles, just sayin’. 😏

2 • 3 years ago

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