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Twitch files lawsuit against two alleged hate raiders

Twitch is taking legal action against two users accused of organizing hate raids.

Donovan Erskine

September 10, 2021 9:15 AM

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Twitch has been making headlines lately, and not for great reasons. There has been a widespread issue surrounding hate raids, in which bots would flock to live channels in large amounts, flooding the chat with slurs and other hateful language. These attacks were often targeted towards minorities and streamers of other marginalized backgrounds. Twitch has been heavily criticized for its lack of decisive action, but it looks like the company is making moves to put an end to the issue. A new report reveals that Twitch is suing two alleged hate raiders.

The news of Twitch suing alleged hate raiders was shared by Wired on September 10, 2021. The lawsuit was filed this week in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit was filed against users “Cruzzcontrol” and “CreatineOverdose.” Before resorting to legal action, Twitch states that it permanently banned both users from the platform, but they evaded the bans by creating new accounts and slightly altering the code used for their hate raids. Twitch believes that Cruzzcontrol and CreatineOverdose are based in the Netherlands and Austria, respectively.

Twitch streamers have been pleading with the company for months to address the increasing issue of hate raids on the platform. Earlier this month, the #ADayOffTwitch protest saw a number of creators boycott the website, leading to some of its lowest viewership this year. Wired got in touch with a Twitch spokesperson, who spoke about the decision to file the lawsuit.

“We hope this Complaint will shed light on the identity of the individuals behind these attacks and the tools that they exploit, dissuade them from taking similar behaviors to other services, and help put an end to these vile attacks against members of our community,” the spokesperson said.

It’s unclear just how much of the hate raids that these two users are responsible for, but Twitch taking legal action is a step towards eradicating the issue. Be sure to bookmark our Twitch topic page as we continue to monitor the situation.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_