Is the world of streaming experiencing its #MeToo? This is what we have heard a lot in recent days on social networks.
It all started with a thread on Twitter from streamer Maghla on October 25: she said she was “tired” of the permanent sexualization and cybersexist harassment she had suffered for several years. Pornographic photomontages, Discord servers where Internet users imagine sexual scenarios around her, insulting comments and messages, videos showing men masturbating on photos of her… What Maghla describes, she is not the only one to experience it : many other streamers have spoken following her thread, testifying to the sexist and sexual cyberviolence suffered during their streams or on their social networks.
Among those who testified on Twitter, we find Lixiviatio, developer by day and streamer by night. She agreed to tell 20 minutes what her daily life as a streamer on Twitch looks like, and particularly the messages and insults she receives. “It’s a weekly minimum, but it varies according to my activity on the networks. At 99%, it’s revolved around sex and rape, ”she explains.
From GamerGate to #MeToo stream, nothing changes
This phenomenon is not new: the video game industry is predominantly male and rather inclined to maintain this interpersonal relationship. Less than a decade ago, the GamerGate affair showed the power of mass cyberbullying against women in the industry. In the summer of 2014, video game designer Zoë Quinn and feminist journalist Anita Sarkeesian were the targets of mass cyberbullying. Zoë Quinn has been accused by her ex-boyfriend of having slept with a video game journalist to get positive reviews for the game she had just released. The designer found herself under an avalanche of rape and death threats. Anita Sarkeesian, for defending her and criticizing the machismo present in the video game world, suffered the same type of violence for months: a student had even threatened to plant a bomb in the university where she was to give a lecture .
If the recent speeches in the middle of the stream and the video game are not new, they have the particularity to arrive at the same time and five years after the beginning of the #MeToo movement.
But to really talk about a “#MeToo of the stream”, these speeches would have to have concrete consequences, especially on the side of Twitch. In 2021, the platform strengthened its rules on cyberbullying, in particular by broadening the definition of sexual harassment on the platform or by prohibiting the organization of hate raids… But since their implementation, for streamers, not much doesn’t seem to have changed. “In reality, they try to put things in place but I find that it is not enough. For example, Twitch has implemented an option to limit people who send messages on the chat with the email address and the verified phone number… but it is widespread to use fake emails and phone numbers”, deplores Lixi.
Male hypocrisy and legal failings
Following Maghla’s thread and those of a dozen other streamers, many personalities from the streaming and video game world expressed their support for the women concerned… At the same time, many Internet users have meanwhile denied the violence suffered and accused the streamers of lying to get people talking about them. As a result, some have suffered new waves of gender-based cyberbullying.
What many streamers and more generally women and minority people visible on the Internet have also denounced is the hypocrisy and false surprise of many men. “In fact, there are plenty of guys who have been supportive and behind allowing misogynistic and sexist behavior in their chats, who themselves are tweeting which is not ok. After a while, when you have thousands of viewers, you have a duty to be correct, to share good values, ”adds streamer Lixi.
Most of the facts denounced by streamers are criminally reprehensible: messages with a sexual or sexist connotation are punishable by three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. Photomontages, in particular of a sexual nature, are punishable by one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. Except that in terms of sexist and sexual cyberviolence, many victims do not dare to file a complaint against their attackers or harassers and the complaints filed often have difficulty in succeeding.
The only notable fact: in May, a man was sentenced to a year in prison for harassing and threatening streamer Maghla. Will this single decision serve as case law? It is still necessary that justice seizes this #MeToo of the stream.