San Francisco (AFP)

Players on the Twitch platform called a live broadcasts strike on Wednesday to protest the wave of racist and misogynistic harassment that many content creators are facing, and call on the ever-popular streaming service to better protect them.

"Today is #ADayOffTwitch (" a day without Twitch ", note) and frankly ... It's cathartic," tweeted RekItRaven, a black player who had already launched in early August the slogan #TwitchDoBetter (Twitch must do better).

Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, receives more than 30 million visitors per day.

They often view video game games with live commentary by the players themselves, and can interact with them and other spectators.

But in recent months, the phenomenon of "hate raids" - "hate raids" - has taken on an unprecedented scale, according to the victims.

Their windows of conversation are regularly and suddenly submerged by insults relating to their skin color, their sexual orientation, their religion ... Even by calls to suicide or ultra violent images.

Raven and other content creators have come together to launch this strike.

"We brought forward the date because it is no longer just harassment. The targeted individuals see their personal information spread on Twitch. It was becoming dangerous," she told AFP.

Content creator Raven has launched a movement to call on the Twitch platform to better tackle racist and misogynistic harassment Handout Rek It Raven / AFP

A spokesperson for the platform told AFP that Twitch "supports the right of streamers to speak out and report important issues."

"No one should have to suffer malicious attacks for who they are or their opinions, and we're working hard to keep banned accounts out of the cracks, as well as on improvements to make Twitch safer for creators," he detailed.

According to the TwitchTracker site, around 5,000 fewer channels than usual were broadcasting live at 5:00 p.m. GMT on Wednesday.

The platform and Raven recently swapped to discuss solutions to the problem.

Raven, a mother of two, in her thirties, derives all of her income from her channel.

It must now carefully prepare its sessions - technical configurations, mobilization of its volunteer moderators - to reduce the risk of a new flood of racism and references to the Ku Klux Klan.

“Today I'm going to spend time with family and friends and just breathe,” she added on Twitter.

© 2021 AFP