For many months now, Twitch has been caught up in a battle with hate raids. Twitch streamers who've been a part of the community for a while are used to dealing with the occasional heckler, but banning one rude viewer is very different from trying to wrangle hundreds or thousands of bot accounts that flood the streamer's chat to spam harmful messages. A few months ago, Twitch released new tools that helped mitigate bot accounts' influence on Twitch chats, but that system doesn't necessarily counteract another type of hate raid. Real people can still coordinate raids where they join a streamer's chat together to harass the streamer in person, rather than using bots as proxies.
A recent example comes from a raid that forced Pokimane to cancel a 12-hour stream rather than subject her viewers to harassment. The creator behind the raid was JiDion, a YouTuber and Twitch streamer known for his prank content. While JiDion initially received a 14-day suspension from the platform, Twitch has since doubled down and made the ban permanent. Twitch's stronger punishment seems like it could be connected with the company's ongoing internal struggle to prevent hate raids. It's possible that JiDion's ban is meant to serve as a warning to other streamers to stay away from hate raiding.
JiDion's Ban and the Hate Raid Conflict
There's no doubt that JiDion should've been banned for sending his viewers into Pokimane's chat to spam harassing messages; even JiDion has admitted that he broke the rules and deserved a ban. What's remarkable about his situation is that Twitch escalated the ban shortly after issuing his first punishment. Many streamers expressed their sympathy for Pokimane after the incident, saying that JiDion was only the latest in a long line of misogynistic figures who harass Pokimane. JiDion has since claimed that he didn't target her for sexist reasons, and believes that the outpouring of support is responsible for his Twitch ban upgrade.
However, it's possible that JiDion's enhanced ban has less to do with his specific treatment of Pokimane and more with the broad issue of hate raids. Right now, Twitch is trying to mend its reputation after an embattled 2021 where streamers demanded faster action on hate raids from Twitch. Although Twitch has banned 15 million bot accounts and provided streamers with tools to keep harassers out of chat, JiDion's raid shows that hate raids are still an issue. While Twitch may have systems in place to punish hate raids, it doesn't have many ways to deter people from arranging hate raids in the first place.
JiDion's permanent ban could have something to do with that. It's possible that Twitch has decided to make an example out of JiDion, showing streamers and other users that they'll be punished severely for coordinating any kind of hate raid. In a recent open letter about safety, Twitch said that it aims to improve its ability to deter negative behavior, so JiDion's ban could be a part of that initiative. If Twitch sufficiently intimidates malevolent users with a tough stance on hate raids, then it might prevent some of those raids before they begin.
Signs of Change at Twitch
Twitch's strong response to JiDion could hint at other major changes in the future too. Twitch has indicated that it's developing more safety tools for its streamers, and paired with a more aggressive stance on moderating raids, there's some new hope that hate raids could fall off in 2022 and beyond. JiDion is campaigning to get his 14-day ban back, but since his ban is associated with one of Twitch's biggest issues at the moment, it seems unlikely that Twitch will show lenience in his case. On the contrary, JiDion could be only the first of many to receive severe punishment for participating in hate raids.