Even before several women came forward with allegations that streamers had sexually assaulted and abused them, Twitch's staff was already facing a wave of backlash from viewers for giving controversial streamers like Amouranth and Alinity more lenient punishments than their smaller counterparts. While Twitch staff largely ignored previous criticism, it has decided to respond to these victims' testimonies.
On June 23, Twitch and its CEO both posted official responses to the wave of accusations on Twitter. Viewers had been begging Twitch to address the rampant issues on its platform beforehand, but they seemed dissatisfied with the official response afterwards.
Amid the many allegations calling out abusive streamers, one music streamer claimed that Twitch CEO Emmett Shear personally dismissed her concerns about a Twitch partner using his following to abuse her. Other streamers also chimed in with instances where the company failed to act on worrying reports of problematic behavior. In response, Twitch released a statement promising to work with law enforcement to investigate all the claims. It concluded its statement by thanking the community for speaking up. For his own statement, Shear reposted an internal email promising to work to make Twitch a safer environment for everyone by instituting "higher standards" on the platform. Although he did not mention the earlier allegation, the CEO did apologize for any "dismissive" comments.
Community reception to the statements were largely negative. Several Twitter responses to Twitch's statement were skeptical that the platform would follow through on its promises. Others specifically said they would not be happy until Twitch proved it was taking tangible steps.
For example, another reply pointed out that one of the accused streamers was downplaying allegations on stream at the time of publication. Twitter user Samos89 also responded with his own experience with Twitch dismissing his concerns of racial abuse on the Twitch platform. Several users called for Twitch to involve third party, impartial investigators in its next steps.
Clearly, Twitch viewers are dissatisfied with the platform's words of solidarity. In response, several streamers and viewers are organizing a Twitch blackout where they refuse to watch or participate in streams. Some are even cancelling their monthly subscriptions in protest. Time will tell whether or not this boycott impacts the streaming giant's decisions going forward.
Source: GameSpot, Twitch, Emmett Shear