The latest leak from Twitch invites some serious conversations about its current community.
Twitch will be twitching some more as the latest security breach leaves streamers exposed. Following #ADayOffTwitch and this morning’s reported ‘125GB torrent link’ leak, one of the key takeaways was the gross earnings of its streamers from August 2019-October 2021.
After going through the list, it makes a lot of sense to see many notable names in the top ten like xQcOW, summit1g and Ludwig — many of them are staple, male figures in the current streaming and gaming community. CriticalRole is of course, one of the biggest proponents of increasing the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons. CriticalRole is great to have such a diverse cast, but it’s saddening and furious to note that one of the only female and BIPOC streamers on this list is Pokimane.
Pokimane (Imane Anys) is a Moroccan-Canadian internet personality and streamer who rose to prominence with her gameplay content in such games like League of Legends and Fornite. She is also a member of the internet personality house and group known as “Offline TV.”
The gross earnings report showed she has made about $1.5 million, which is a whole lot of money. However, she ranks at number 39 out of 100 on the list and is one of the only female streamers on the list. This brings a lot into question of how Twitch fosters its community and says it promotes diversity, representation and inclusion by conducting surveys and is currently celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.
It’s understanding to see the recent changes Twitch has been making, but it’s a shame for underrepresented streamers who’ve been trying to make their break on the livestreaming service. The #ADayOffTwitch movement that came last night was a previous act for change against how Twitch lacked the intent to help fix hate speech and harassment many streamers are left victim to. The service responded that hateful ‘spam attacks’ are horrible but it’s not “a simple fix” as they’ve said they have implementing security to platform’s chat features.
Only time will tell if the livestreaming service decides to help change the community for the better or will they continue to let the male-dominated and abusive community flourish unchecked. There’s a lot of hope this revelation will bring change and equality for all streamers and gamer-alike, especially marginalized those a part of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community.
