Figuring out how to stop hate raids on Twitch can be frustrating. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, and plenty of other -isms run rampant across the interwebs unfortunately. Live streamers that are part of targeted communities have long pleaded with streaming platforms to generate tools to help prevent hate raids. Here are some tips that should help in dealing with them.
Stopping hate raids on Twitch
Acquire a chat moderator
If you are fortunate enough to have a friend or family member that is willing to do so, recruit them to moderate your stream. Having a chat moderator will not only allow you to focus on the fun with your community, but it will provide someone who can quickly purge your chat of hate.
If you aren’t fortunate to get a real person to moderate your streams real time, acquire a chatbot. Apps and plugins such as Wizebot.tv, Nightbot.tv, SAMMI, Mix It Up, and other services can be configured to moderate your chat. While these services won’t automatically shut down a hate raid, there are tools you can use within them to help you self-moderate your chat.
Do not end your stream
First and foremost, do not end your stream. When it comes to hate raids, the purpose is to intimidate and frustrate. They want you to end your stream because they seem to think that your viewers and community would be better off in their stream or elsewhere. Don’t give them the satisfaction of scaring you off any streaming platform. Doing so will only embolden them to continue to do it to others.
Don’t acknowledge or respond to the hateful comments
While some skillful streamers have the wit to quickly respond to people to hop into their stream with toxic or hateful comments and questions, its best to ignore them. When hate raids start, they often are a number of bots or fake accounts that pour obscene, hateful, and inappropriate slurs and phrases into your chat. Using the tools available to you on your platform and other tools on the net as well, you can sidestep the hate.
Disable follower and subscriber notifications
When hate raids on Twitch begin, usually there is a flood of new followers and/or subscribers. These are usually the ‘hate bots’ who then flood the chat with hateful messages. Disabling these notifications is just the first step of addressing a hate raid.
Enable followers or subscriber only mode
Most streaming platforms give the streamer various options allowing them to control how their stream proceeds. Oftentimes there are settings for chat moderation that only allow accounts that are in chat who are followers or subscribers to chat. Doing so will give you the time to stop the flood of hateful comments. This may give you enough time to identify the users or bots, ban/kick them from the stream, and purge their earlier messages from the chat history.
Enable emote only chat
Another feature of some streaming platforms is the ability to enable an “Emote Only Chat” mode. This mode makes it so that chat can only use emojis. This will also give you time to identify and oust the offenders. Just be sure to remember to turn this feature off once the coast is clear.
Enable slow mode
Yet another tool is enacting what is called slow mode. Using moderator commands, you can delay how often chat messages will show in your channel’s chat. Again, be sure to disable this mode once the raid is done.
Clear chat messages
If the hateful messages have managed to find their way into your chat, in order to keep the peace, use the streamer moderation tools of your platform to clear the chat. Do this as often as necessary to keep things civil and comfortable as possible for your community.
If you are able to, use a Stream Deck or a virtual deck like Lioranboard (SAMMI) or Deckboard to set up macros to enable a custom ‘safe mode’. Many custom streaming safe modes will automatically enable all if not most of these features to combat hate raids.
For additional guidance on how to handle hate raids on Twitch, here are a few great Youtube videos: