(Los Angeles Blade Graphic)
In attempt to shut down repeated malicious attacks on groups of its marginalized users known colloquially as “hate raids,” Amazon’s Twitch video livestreaming service has filed suit against two users for what the company says have targeted those marginalized streamers, specifically LGBTQ and people of color.
In court documents filed Sept. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the company listed two individuals as defendants by their usernames, Cruzzcontrol from the Netherlands and CreatineOverdose from Vienna, Austria.
In an email to Wired magazine a spokesperson for Twitch noted, “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.”
“Hate raids” are organized attacks on various Twitch channels in which bots flood streamers’ chats with racist, homophobic, sexist and other harassing content in violation of its terms of service. It’s been a problem for months, but didn’t come to widespread attention until this past month PC GAMER reported, when multiple targeted streamers planned a one-day boycott of the platform, using the #ADayOffTwitch hashtag.
Even though few big-name streamers took part, Twitch saw a significant decline in viewership on the day of the protest.
According to the court documents filed against the two users named in the suit, they created multiple Twitch accounts and thousands of bot accounts to create the hate raids. The lawsuit also stated that Cruzzcontrol and CreatineOverdose can “generate thousands of bots in minutes” for these hate raids, citing that Cruzzcontrol alone is behind about 3000 bots.
Buzzfeed highlighted one user who tweeted;
CW: Racism hateful conduct
I got hate raided and follow botted not even 5 minutes into my stream yesterday.
It’s very overwhelming when you’ve never experienced it before and as black creators, we should not be subjected to experiencing this kind of behavior ✊ @Twitch pic.twitter.com/KqMJBgvxaz— (@bremonaa) August 14, 2021
“These attacks obstruct the chat so significantly, victimized streamers are unable to engage with their community through chat for the duration of the attack, and some even choose to avoid streaming altogether until the attack ends,” the lawsuit read.
In addition, the company alleges in its suit that these relentless ‘Hate raids’ creates an atmosphere where the discouraged users quit streaming altogether “eliminating an important source of revenue.”
“Despite Twitch’s best efforts, the hate raids continue,” the lawsuit states. “On information and belief, Defendants created software code to conduct hate raids via automated means. And they continue to develop their software code to avoid Twitch’s efforts at preventing Defendants’ bots from accessing the Twitch Services.”
PC GAMER reporter Andy Chalk noted; “The lawsuit seeks a legally-binding injunction that will prohibit the defendants from using Twitch, as well as various sorts of damages and legal fees. But it has some high hurdles to clear before it gets there, including determining the real identities of the defendants, who are currently known only as CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose. That in itself may not be a major issue—lawsuits are often filed against anonymous “Does” (Bungie and Ubisoft’s joint suit against cheat-makers, for instance, names 50 of them)—but there may also be jurisdictional issues, as CruzzControl is believed to be a resident of the Netherlands, while CreatineOverdose is from Austria.”
