Twitch has filed a lawsuit against two users allegedly behind an influx of hate raids targeting streamers of marginalized backgrounds.
The lawsuit (first spotted by Wired) targets two users by their online aliases: Cruzzcontrol, who is allegedly located in the Netherlands, and CreatineOverdose, allegedly in Vienna, Austria. The two users allegedly orchestrated networks of bot accounts that would spam Twitch streamers of different marginalized backgrounds.
According to Twitch, Black and LGBTQIA+ streamers endured a barrage of attacks in the last few months. While streaming, their chat channels would be suddenly overwhelmed by hateful messages, many of which directly referenced the Ku Klux Klan. Many streamers protested Twitch’s slow action against the attacks in a day-long blackout organized under the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch.
Though Cruzzcontrol and CreatineOverdose might be the primary operators behind the bot networks, Twitch alleges they were assisted by communities organizing in Steam groups and on Discord servers—an uncomfortable implication for the operators of both platforms as to why such activity hasn’t been restricted as of yet.
Twitch has previously pursued legal action against bot makers on Twitch and come out on top. In those cases, bot makers were creating tools that allowed Twitch Streamers to boost their accounts.