Youtube is a video sharing website that changed the way we view and share content. We can share our hobbies, our likes and dislikes, our best times, and our worst times. This lead to the evolution of broadcasting our hobbies, mostly of our art and video gameplay, to others who also appreciate the same hobbies as well. That is where Twitch came in with their live video broadcasting website, similar to Youtube but the content is being created only in real time. Both of these sites invite content creators to share their skills and talents to a vast amount of people all over the world. The idea became so popular, and profitable, to Youtube and Twitch that these companies decided to pay these creators for their long hours of making and editing their content and posting it on their site. This turned streaming and video making into a full-time career for most people who stayed dedicated to this business idea.
But for female career streamers, the comments towards them and their content are usually far worse than any childish insults. I have spoken to 26 female twitch streamers who have been harassed. Out of all the part-time and fulltime streamers, a handful of them have been harassed by someone on Twitch and some of the stories were wild. For example, one streamer had some person personally message them 28 times with just “hi.” Three of them have had a “twitch raid” where a group of viewers goes onto someones live stream, and they either spam the chat with profanity, sexual or “trolling” comments. Twelve have said they have been instant-messaged on all their social media accounts with either spam or “troll” messages.
These female streamers are at work trying to minimize issues at work. We need to be aware of people want to ruin these creators days and call them out on it. We need to work on reporting these accounts to corresponding companies and let them know what is being allowed on their sites.
Every online personality, or anyone who is considered a celebrity, have their fair share of harassment whether they be male or female. Some people who love to leave comments on others work just to leave a comment, are not always nice or can be considered constructive criticism. Some of these comments just go for low blows, and they insult the creator’s appearance, the art, how they play or just leave hurtful messages that can make anyone want to quit their careers for something much quieter and not as soul-crushing. These female streamers are at work trying to minimize issues while they are working. We need to be aware of people who do this, call them out for it. We need to work on reporting these accounts to corresponding companies or let them know what is being allowed on their sites.