Twitch Users Breed Discrimination

14 min readJan 1, 2019

by S4B0T4G3FIRE | January 01, 2019, 8:00 AM EST

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to shine a light on the platform-wide misconduct that Twitch users so carelessly breed. For a long time, “mature content” on Twitch has only gone as far as the likes of swearing and inappropriate dress. However, in recent years, Twitch has been facing a growing issue known as “discriminatory harassment.” Due to the presence of a non-negligible percentage of minors using the platform, it is worthwhile to observe just how much discriminatory harassment, both harmful and harmless in nature, is actually being bred.

This article will explore not only the magnitude of Twitch’s problem with discriminatory harassment, but it will also seek to define some of the worst types of discriminatory harassment as well as some underlying reasons why Twitch users seem to “default” to this kind of inappropriate mistreatment of others.

Problem:

Twitch users carelessly and insensitively breed discrimination of many kinds, without restriction or punishment.

Variables:

The variables to be considered in this study include the following:

1. Size of the chat

2. Sex of the streamer

3. Race of the streamer

Hypothesis:

Twitch users, due to their lack of common sense and not having to face legitimate consequences for their online actions, have become desensitized to the feelings of remorse that come with committing discriminatory harassment; and they are more likely to commit discriminatory harassment as a result.

Background Research:

In order to better understand why Twitch users are so inclined to partake in discriminatory harassment and the sharing of other inappropriate language, let us first consider the following questions:

What is Twitch’s core demographic audience?
What is discriminatory harassment?
Why are people prejudiced?
Are people more likely to act on their prejudices when they are in crowds as opposed to when they are alone?
What are the most common types of prejudice?
What are the emotional effects of harassment on its victims?
What are some of the worst known historical cases of prejudice on Twitch?
What are the consequences of committing discriminatory harassment on Twitch?

What is Twitch’s core demographic audience?

According to Twitch’s audience statistics from September 2017, “81.5% of Twitch users are male with 55% in the age between 18–34.” Statistically, when applying this data to a normal bell curve, this means:

22.5% of male users can be appropriately assumed to be under 18
22.5% of male users can be appropriately assumed to be 35 or older
18% of all Twitch users are males between 13 and 18

Furthermore, according to Twitch’s Terms of Service, “If you are between the ages of 13 and 18 (or between 13 and the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction of residence), you may only use the Twitch Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms of Service.” In avoidance of making more assumptions, it will be left to the reader of this article to decide if it is correct to believe that all Twitch users between the ages of 13 and 18, which account for above 18% (in addition to female users) of the entire platform, are viewing Twitch content under the supervision of a legal guardian.

What is discriminatory harassment?

Discriminatory harassment is defined by the United States Legal System as the “verbal or physical conduct that denigrates or shows hostility toward an individual on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, physical or mental disability, and sexual orientation.” Essentially, it is the harassment of others’ physical characteristics, beliefs, and/or preferences.

Why are people prejudiced?

There is no good answer to this question. Prejudice is largely inconceivable and inexcusable. However, there are still reasons why prejudice exists in general. Two (2) major reasons are “broken patterns” and “low self-esteem.”

The explanation behind broken patterns as a cause of prejudice is that people are often bothered by things that deviate from the norm. Two journalists from CNN, Anton Gollwitzer and John Bargh, carried out a study and realized that adults from vastly different cultures expressed a similar dislike of “broken patterns made up of shapes — for instance, a row of triangles with one triangle out of line.” The two journalists eventually reached the conclusion that…

“The greater a person’s discomfort toward broken patterns in everyday scenes and geometric shapes, the greater their dislike of social norm-breakers (such as someone who cross-dresses), people with unusual physical characteristics (such as [people with] Dwarfism) and racial minority group members (black individuals).”

In other words, humans prefer patterns that meet their expectations of what is normal/perfect to them, and they show prejudice (to a certain extent) when there are discrepancies between their expectations and reality.

Furthermore, prejudice is also likely to occur as a result of low self-esteem in humans. In short, Jeffrey Sherman, a study author from PsychologicalScience, and his findings state,

“When people are feeling badly about themselves, they’re more likely to show bias against people who are different.”

In fact, this finding can be expanded to every form of discrimination, bullying, harassment, and so on. When humans have negative feelings about themselves, they tend to worsen the feelings of others in an attempt to either make themselves feel better or make others feel just as awful.

Are people more likely to act on their prejudices when they are in crowds as opposed to when they are alone?

Simply put, yes; and conformity is the reason why. Humans tend to conform to those around them, even when they disagree with those around them. In the words of Michael Bond, a journalist for BBC,

“People frequently adopt the view of the majority even when it is obviously wrong, and even when they have to deny their own senses…When people interact, they end up agreeing, and they make worse decisions.”

All of this means that humans, individually, are sensitive and reasonable and fair; but humans, collectively, tend to ignore their better judgment, give in to peer pressure, and, in Twitch’s case, commit punishable-in-real-life, crime-like discrimination.

What are the most common types of prejudice?

Hostility toward specific races, colors, sexes, genders, religions, mental illnesses, and sexual preferences are all types of prejudice common on Twitch. Honestly, though, humans can be prejudiced toward every characteristic, including height, weight, age, clothing, profession, etc.

What are the emotional effects of harassment on its victims?

It is no surprise that people who are harassed, bullied and/or discriminated against are forced to feel awful about themselves. But, to what extent, can these awful feelings control the lives of people? According to VeryWellFamily, Victims of cyber-bullying are controlled by the following feelings:

Overwhelmedness
Vulnerability
Humiliation
Dissatisfaction with themselves
Vengeance
Disinterest
Isolation
Depression
Suicide

It is so unfortunate to think that words alone could have an effect as big as suicidal thoughts on someone, but it is true.

What are the worst known cases of prejudice on Twitch?

Though there are past eSports events infamous for having extremely discriminatory Twitch chats, they will not be named directly. Instead, here are a couple of brief descriptions of how Twitch chat reacted to one of these recent events. As summarized by Colin Campbell from Polygon,

“The abuse included hateful language targeting African-Americans, as well as graphic descriptions and imagery. There was so much abuse that moderators were unable to keep up.”

Sadly, Twitch chat is infamous for its hateful speech and, unfortunately, Twitch itself has done nothing to address it or combat it effectively. As a result, every major event is an incubator for hateful speech.

What are the consequences of committing discriminatory harassment on Twitch?

Essentially, there are three (3) types of consequences that Twitch users can face for misbehaving. These consequences are known as “Timeouts,” “Bans,” and eventually “Account Suspensions.” Account Suspensions are mostly applied when a user violates Twitch’s Terms of Service or Community Guidelines. According to Twitch, suspensions work as follows:

“If your account is suspended, you may not access or use Twitch services, including watching streams, broadcasting, and chatting. After the suspension is complete, you will be able to use our services once again. After two strikes, the next violation will result in an indefinite suspension, but some severe violations will result in an indefinite suspension on the first violation.”

Unfortunately, none of these consequences deter users from discriminating or harassing others, especially since the rules are rarely enforced and, when they are enforced, users know they can simply make a new account with which to continue harassing people.

Experimental Design:

In this research study, a total of 160 streams will be thoroughly observed and examined (for about an hour each), every discriminatory/inappropriate message, saying, reference, and image noticed will be counted, and the type of discriminatory harassment will be noted.

The 160-stream total is specific for equal representation of the following streamer characteristics:

Four (4) streamer categories: “Female,” “Male,” “Caucasian,” and “Non-Caucasian”
Eight (8) viewer-count subsections: “0–10,” “11–25,” “26–50,” “51–100,” “101–250,” “251–500,” “501–1000,” and “1000+”
Five (5) games/categories: “Fortnite,” “League of Legends,” “Counter-Strike Global Offensive,” “Just Chatting,” and “Hearthstone”

Also, eight (8) different forms of discriminatory/inappropriate language will be counted. These include “Homophobic,” “Racist,” Sexist,” “Gender-Exclusive,” “Inconsiderate to Mental Illness,” “Religious,” “Sexual,” and “General Bullying.” Screenshots of every noticed infraction will be collected as well.

Results:

Graphical representations of the data collected in this study can be seen below.

NOTE: Since some chats were too full of discriminatory harassment, once the count reached 99, counting was halted and “99” was recorded. As such, the true numbers are likely even higher than the ones shown in the following graphs.

Figure 1: Discriminatory Harassment by Type

From what can be determined by looking at Figure 1, “Sexual” is the largest form of discriminatory harassment on Twitch. With sexual statements ranging from “users calling each other genitalia-related terms” to “users demanding sexual favors from others,” this is not a surprising statistic. Unfortunately, however, most of these sexual statements were directed at females streaming “Just Chatting,” which can be depicted in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Figure 2: Discriminatory Harassment by Game/Category

Figure 2 demonstrates how discriminatory harassment is not only seen in channels that stream games. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the majority of it can be found in the “Just Chatting” category. Though it would be nice to assume that this is likely because conversations in “Just Chatting” are less structured (due to the lack of a game to guide the discussion), it is more than likely because many (female) streamers dress rather revealingly. While they have the right to dress how they want (to a certain extent), it does seem like a percentage of them are basically “inviting” harassment into their chats by dressing inappropriately as a way to advertise their work on other platforms, including Patreon.

Figure 3: Discriminatory Harassment by Demographic

Onto Figure 3, it can be seen that, despite the results discussed in Figure 2, neither the sex of the streamer nor the race of the streamer necessarily decide how much discriminatory harassment streamers will see in their own communities. While females saw 880 counts, males saw 715 counts. While Caucasians saw 402 counts, non-Caucasians saw 333 counts. Yes, it is true that females saw 23% more discriminatory harassment than males, and Caucasians saw 21% more discriminatory harassment than non-Caucasians, but clearer distinctions can be made when identifying the types of discriminatory harassment witnessed.

Of all discriminatory infractions faced by females, 65% were “Sexual” and 13% were “General Bullying”; whereas, for male streamers, 41% were “Sexual” and 23% were “Racist.” It is entirely possible that this discrepancy exists because 81.5% of Twitch users are male. So, instead of sexualizing and bullying other males, it seems as though the audience defaults to racist remarks (though further research would be required in order to find out why this statistic is true and the extent to which it is true).

Discussion:

Upon consideration of the general observations made and the numerical data collected, some further questions are to be asked as they pertain to Twitch.

Are humans’ perceptions of what is considered to be “inappropriate” changing?
Are humans becoming too comfortable making jokes about sexuality, race, religion, mental illness and so on?
Should Twitch do something to fix this major issue plaguing its platform and ruining the experiences of its users?

Are humans’ perceptions of what is considered to be “inappropriate” changing?

It is very likely that perceptions of what is considered to be inappropriate are changing for the worse. They have changed many times over the course of history, and they will continue to evolve in the future. For instance, swearing. Once considered to be a sign of disrespect and bad manners, swearing is now a part of almost everyone’s (including children’s) casual vocabulary and is becoming less-and-less censored across many entertainment platforms, including television, radio, and social media.

It also seems as though humans, in addition to becoming desensitized to swearing, are becoming desensitized to sexual phrases/symbols and homophobic/religious/sexist slurs as well, since this language is used in everyday conversation. Nowadays, this type of language only truly becomes inappropriate when it is targeted at specific people with the intention of doing harm.

Are humans becoming too comfortable making “jokes” about sexuality, race, religion, mental illness and so on?

Yes. Definitely (especially on the Internet and, specifically, on Twitch). Humans are much more inclined to take advantage of their online freedom of speech by meaninglessly throwing around disrespectful opinions. Whether it be by calling someone/something “gay” or “retarded” with or without the intention of causing legitimate harm, or by telling a female streamer to “get back in the kitchen” (because of historical gender roles), or by telling someone to “kill himself/herself,” none of these words or phrases are acceptable in today’s society, but not everyone refrains from saying them online (since there are fewer punishments online). With that mentioned, it is certainly the case that humans are way too comfortable mocking other people and making jokes out of serious issues.

Should Twitch do something to fix this major issue plaguing its platform and the experiences of its users?

Frankly, yes. Whether or not Twitch accomplishes this by…

Actually enforcing its current rules or…
By creating a new system to prevent harassment altogether,

this major issue needs to be resolved. Currently, all Twitch is doing is forcing the responsibility onto streamers, as mentioned below in reference to the “Harassment” section of its Community Guidelines.

“Creators are role models and leaders of the communities they create or foster around them. Creators should consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; we ask that you make a good faith effort to quell any efforts from those in your community to harass others.
Twitch should not be used to incite, encourage, promote, facilitate, or organize hateful conduct or harassment, whether on or off Twitch. We will suspend communities, organizations, and individuals that do so.”

Clearly, neither Twitch nor Twitch streamers are abiding by these guidelines. Twitch is failing to “suspend communities, organizations, and individuals who harass others,” and (not all; but many) streamers are failing to “quell the efforts from those in their community to harass others.” In fact, communities are breeding more and more harassment every day.

The bottom line is that the current system is ineffective, so something needs to be done. It is not okay for users to continue to get away with harassment. Messages like the ones shown below (and messages even worse than the ones shown below) are not acceptable!

To make matters even worse, on December 10th, 2018, multiple channels streamed literal pornography on the platform. Two (2) of these channels managed to make it to “Just Chatting”’s top row before Twitch finally took them down. Over the course of about thirty (30) minutes each, one channel obtained 3,000 viewers, and the other channel obtained over 5,000 viewers. Way too many people saw these broadcasts before Twitch handled the situation.

Conclusions/Takeaways:

Discriminatory harassment is DANGEROUS!

It can lead to anxiety, depression, stress, etc. If not taken care of immediately, these disorders can lead to much worse outcomes, including self-harm and suicide. Discriminatory harassment is a weapon that humans seem to wield too freely.

Discriminatory harassment on Twitch is RELENTLESS!

Some users literally go out of their ways to hurt others. Hateful users are known for committing discriminatory harassment, getting banned from channels, and then returning to those channels with multiple other accounts just so they can continue to bully the streamer and/or other chatters.

There is only one thing that Twitch users do not discriminate against…

…which is who they choose to discriminate against. They do not care about your gender or your race or your sexuality or your religion. Just by being present on the platform, you are a target. For some reason, they fail to realize that human beings are behind the usernames they harass.

Not all streamers take responsibility for their communities, just as Twitch does not take responsibility for its streamers.

Regardless of the rules that streamers (loosely) “enforce” in their chats, they still allow discriminatory harassment and bullying and hatred in their chats. Furthermore, sometimes streamers do not even follow their own rules, thus failing to lead by example in the process.

To make matters worse, the people running Twitch do not even abide by their own community guidelines.

What should Twitch do now?

Some words and phrases should be blacklisted from the entire platform. In all honesty, there are just some things that users should not even have the chance to write on Twitch. The responsibility of blacklisting words and phrases (and topics) from chats should no longer be left to the streamers. In fact, many streamers probably do not even know how to blacklist words or phrases from their chats.

Just go ahead and create a universal blacklist with words and phrases that, when written, will automatically result in a Timeout of the user from ALL Twitch chats…leading up to temporary account suspensions; OR just simply restrict messages containing those words and phrases from going through, and notify users that what they wrote is not allowed.

No, it is not expected that everyone will behave perfectly and positively, but they should be limited to at least somewhat decent language and manners.

Here are the raw data tables in case anyone wants to see them:

Thank you for reading this article! The study was a lot of fun and required months to complete. I got to observe (but never interact with) many awesome streamers who have the potential to purge harassment from their communities. Hopefully, that will eventually be the case, and Twitch can be a much more welcoming and supportive platform for all in the future!

Like this article? Perhaps you will like some of my others!

A Thorough Guide to Being a Twitch Moderator

Dear Twitch

Social Media. Do we need it?

Why do Twitch channels fail?

The Internet Survival Guide

Any questions or comments? Feel free to reach out to me on social media!