Twitch updates safety protocols to combat harassment during Black History Month

Twitch announced a new round of safety protocol measures for Black History Month weeks after the company outlined how it would combat harassment and hate raids in 2022.

Streamers participating in the Black History Month celebrations on Twitch will have a few more protections against harassment as the platform continues to evolve its security against malicious viewers.

The streaming giant revealed that they’ve bolstered Twitch’s systems for Black History Month broadcasters, though didn’t outline specifics for what had been improved or implemented. Dexerto has reached out to Twitch for clarification.

Usually, Twitch updates the filters for their automatic systems to flag words, phrases, or behavior that aim to detect harassment as it’s happening.

The company has been reacting to a wave of hate raids in the last few years. The situation boiled over in mid-2021 when #TwitchDoBetter began trending to bring the problem to their attention.

Days later, Twitch responded with a series of tweets acknowledging the problem and promising better protections after issuing an update to its proactive filters while integrating channel-level bans.

• Read more: Twitch reveals plans to combat harassment and hate raids in 2022

Since then, features have been added to the streaming platform in an attempt to quell hostility from random online viewers with the addition of Phone Verified Chat.

It was later revealed that Twitch was suing two alleged perpetrators who were “targeting Black and LGBTQIA+ streamers with racist, homophobic, sexist and other harassing content.”

• Read more: Is getting DMCA banned the new Twitch meta?

But the company is still running into issues in curbing targeted harassment. At the tail end of 2021, another instance of hate raids, this time against popular streamer Pokimane, once again raised calls for improvements to the system.

Twitch announced different initiatives in the month of February to put a spotlight on Black creators and are relying on their new rounds of security measures to provide a safe space for all.