Community Grievances, personal responsibility, and DIY protection: Frustrations and solution-seeking among marginalized Twitch streamers

Abstract

Online spaces offer fan communities and content creators many outlets for expressing their interests, but they also tend to place users in positions where they encounter hostility, toxicity, and gatekeeping. In the case of online streaming on Twitch, users frequently encounter hostility based on identity and seek assistance from fellow users via social media. In this project, I highlight the ways that social media is used to try to organize against discriminatory cultures toward marginalized streamers. Ultimately, I find that much of the onus is placed directly on streamers themselves to circumvent, address, and keep themselves safe despite harassment. In this paper, I will argue that this feeds into the structures and cultures that allow racist and sexist hostilities in online and gaming spaces by placing responsibility – and blame – on individual users from marginalized backgrounds. Although the community is frequently supportive of users who seek advice for addressing hostility and there are attempts at raising awareness through collective online action, the lack of apparent resolution leaves many feeling that these experiences are inevitable, immutable, and within the realm of individual responsibility.