When the games industry saw its most recent wave of abuse allegations take shape in June, it included dozens of accusations against Twitch streamers. Twitch CEO Emmett Shear posted a memo he sent to staff about the allegations on Twitter, saying, "We support people coming forward, commend their bravery in doing so, and know there are many others who have not. The gaming industry is not unlike others that have had to reckon with systemic sexism, racism, and abuse that rewards certain people and disadvantages -- even harms -- others. The status quo needs to change. This reckoning and industry-wide actions are overdue, and this is another issue that we, and the industry, need to address to create lasting and positive change."
About the Sexual Assault:
Shortly after that statement, a former Twitch employee approached GamesIndustry.biz to come forward with allegations of systemic sexism, racism, and abuse like Shear had referenced.
"I've been hesitant for years to share my story and the events that happened to me during my employment at Twitch," she said, "but with the recent events and their statement on Twitter, I feel compelled to share and speak out against their blatant lies to 'create a safe community.'" This employee made it clear she had nothing to gain by coming forward, but felt it was more important to hold Twitch accountable for its actions, and lack thereof.
"Twitch repeatedly swept accounts of harassment and abuse under the rug: sexual, verbal, physical abuse, and racism. And not just my own. It took place in the office. At events. In meetings and behind closed doors. It was rampant and unavoidable. We heard about it in the halls. We saw it at our desks. It was overt and part of the job." In the months since, we have spoken with 16 Twitch employees from every era of the company dating back to when it was Justin.tv. A few said they never saw anything of the sort in their time with the company; most of them had stories confirming different aspects of the original employee's allegations.
One of the most common assertions we heard from employees was that Twitch is not a welcoming environment for women, with one saying the company demonstrated "an explicit tolerance for misogyny." "It was a boys' club," another woman said of working there. "There was a definite bias, a definite sense that females and males were different, and females weren't given the same opportunities. They were prey." One early employee recalled an atmosphere of casual sexism in the office that ranged from ignorance to outright misogyny. Another said it was common to hear women referred to as bitches in the office.
Perhaps predictably, the office culture's attitudes toward women were reflected on the Twitch platform as a whole. Women streamers were routinely called "boob streamers" by men in the office. One employee recalled instances of male co-workers joking about streamers sleeping with people to get favors or slut-shaming them. "The women on the platform were held to extreme standards, and it was always blamed on them if they used sexuality as marketing, and it was deeply degrading," one woman said.
"Women streamers' concerns were not taken seriously," one early employee said. "There was never any talk about 'Should we make a formal system?' or tools of any kind to help them manage the constant harassment. There was an attitude in the office, especially among the partnerships team, of 'What do boob streamers expect'?"
Multiple women said they'd been sexually assaulted by men at the company, including forced kisses, groping, and inappropriate massages. One described suffering verbal assault that was "extremely inappropriate, abusive, degrading, and cruel." Several women we spoke to said they expected some of this kind of treatment when they were hired, but were still surprised at the extent of it.
"Nobody ever really took responsibility for anything and there was nobody to go to if you were threatened, or felt threatened, or were harmed in some way. HR was not on the side of the employees, for sure. They were on the side of the executive team. That was the sense; if you went to HR, that would just ruin you even more."
About the Racism:
"Historically, the decision makers have been predominantly white and male, so they have brushed off safety concerns of racial and ethnic minorities, women, and people from other under-represented groups,"
they said. "They have brushed off those concerns and said, 'When we are prioritizing product road maps, this is where certain safety tools and safety interventions lie; we're going to put those at the bottom because they're not important to us.'
"And they're not important to them because of their experience, and taking their [personal] user experience as the [universal] user experience. And they don't have voices at the table who say, 'Actually, this is really important.'"
Another employee suggested the company was less actively racist than it was tolerant of racial slurs and racist attitudes on its platform. "Hate speech was dismissed as teenagers being edgy and thus not as serious," they said. "It was almost like it was dismissed as not being real racism."
One employee said racism was accepted within the company, recalling one former executive making repeated racist comments to an Asian woman on the team. Another early employee said people within the company had to fight for a year to get the n-word on the global ban list. Streamers also were expected to moderate their own chats and could ban individuals from their channel, so it was not seen as the responsibility of the platform to police behavior.
When they reached out to Twitch:
When we told Twitch what we had heard from those employees, a spokesperson for the company replied, "We take any allegations of this nature extremely seriously, whether on our service or within our company, and work swiftly to investigate and address them as appropriate. Any suggestions to the contrary misrepresent our culture, leadership, and values.
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