How long does it take for Amazon and Twitch to believe that people will forget about improving safety and security on the streaming platform? Four years, apparently, as Twitch has officially terminated all of the members of the safety advisory council, which was first formed in May 2020.
Readers will remember that this advisory council was created by Twitch in response to a surge in harassment and hate raiding campaigns of marginalized streamers, which further spawned a day-long boycott and the addition of a phone-verified chat feature. The council was made up of “carefully selected” “online safety experts,” but now Twitch management has apparently decided those experts are no longer needed.
According to reports, members of the council were told in a meeting at the beginning of May that their contracts would be terminated on May 31st, with no payments for the second half of 2024. It’s important to note that these are not formal Twitch employees, so the dissolution of the council is in addition to layoffs that affected the platform earlier this year.
According to an email sent to members of the advisory council, the work of making Twitch safer will instead fall to “individuals who serve as Twitch Ambassadors,” who are not security and safety experts but rather streamers who “positively contribute to the Twitch community” according to Twitch itself. We further point out that none of these ambassadors is formally paid by Twitch for this additional service.
With Pride Month beginning, it’s easy to question the wisdom of ending this council and pawning its duties off to selected streamers who represent Twitch in a positive light, but ultimately it looks as if money talks once again.
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