Twitch admits it ‘needs to do more’ to address streamer harassment

Twitch has conceded that it “needs to do more” to deal with harassment on its site.

The Amazon-owned streaming service posted a series of tweets acknowledging that it was aware of its users’ frustration over the way such behaviour is handled.

“We’ve seen a lot of conversation about botting, hate raids, and other forms of harassment targeting marginalized creators,” the statement reads.

“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.”

“Thank you to everyone who shared these difficult experiences. We were able to identify a vulnerability in our proactive filters, and have rolled out an update to close this gap and better detect hate speech in chat. We’ll keep updating this to address emerging issues.

“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.

“Our work is never done, and your input is essential as we try to build a safer Twitch. We’ll be reaching out to community members to learn more about their experiences, and encourage you to share feedback via [feedback service] UserVoice.”

Twitch launched the Twitch Safety Advisory Council last year, which is composed of online safety experts and Twitch creators, with the aim being to draft new policies and developing new products and features to improve safety and moderation.