NEW YORK — Content creator Amouranth is among the Twitch streamers featured in a recent New York Times article about online fame and stalking.
Twitch, an Amazon subsidiary, is currently the leading platform for video game livestreaming with over 140 million monthly active users, up from 55 million users in 2015. Amouranth herself counts approximately 5 million followers on the platform and generates a reported $120,000 per month.
A unique aspect of the platform is that it encourages creators to engage directly with fans, write authors Kellen Browning and Kashmir Hill. Though this can be profitable, it has also led to the harassment and stalking of streamers.
Many of these streamers “grow into celebrities, sometimes overnight, [however] Twitch provides little warning about the risks and offers only limited support when dangerous situations arise,” the article notes. Given the casual nature of livestreaming, many creators accidentally reveal personal details about themselves that stalkers can use to more easily find them in the outside world.
Twitch and creators are working together to develop better safety systems; for instance, Twitch will now bar users for dangerous behavior online as well as when they are "off-service."
“Harassment or threats have absolutely no place on Twitch, and we use every lever at our disposal to both minimize the risk of harm and respond to harm caused to our community,” said the company in a statement to the Times.
“I guess you do get used to it — it comes with the territory,” said Amouranth. “It shouldn’t.”
The full article can he found here.
Follow Amouranth on Twitter.
