2023/01/10 by Catherine Y. Han, Joseph Seering, Han, Catherine +6 · 8 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Media, Religion, Digital Communication #Social Media and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2301.03946
openalex publication_date 2023/01/10 · openalex created_date 2023/01/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
In the summer of 2021, users on the livestreaming platform Twitch were targeted by a wave of "hate raids," a form of attack that overwhelms a streamer's chatroom with hateful messages, often through the use of bots and automation. Using a mixed-methods approach, we combine a quantitative measurement of attacks across the platform with interviews of streamers and third-party bot developers. We present evidence that confirms that some hate raids were highly-targeted, hate-driven attacks, but we also observe another mode of hate raid similar to networked harassment and specific forms of subcultural trolling. We show that the streamers who self-identify as LGBTQ+ and/or Black were disproportionately targeted and that hate raid messages were most commonly rooted in anti-Black racism and antisemitism. We also document how these attacks elicited rapid community responses in both bolstering reactive moderation and developing proactive mitigations for future attacks. We conclude by discussing how platforms can better prepare for attacks and protect at-risk communities while considering the division of labor between community moderators, tool-builders, and platforms.