Twitch Called Out After Leak Reveals Racist Pay Gap

In the face of controversy surrounding a recent hack and leak of anonymous data, Twitch is in hot water with some over a perceived racist pay gap between top white streamers and creators of color. Coupled with the streaming giant’s inability to stop the endless stream of bot-powered “hate raids,” it’s becoming easier to question whether or not Twitch even cares.

The recent leak, which included payout information for 2019, the entirety of the source code for Twitch’s mobile, desktop, and console clients, server information, and other proprietary code and info, was perpetrated by users of the infamous image board 4Chan. Those responsible say the goal was to expose radical disparities in pay between white and black content creators on the platform.

An analysis of the earnings data showed that the top 100 earners on the Twitch platform were nearly exclusively white males. This striking information comes at a time when streamers of color, those from the LGBTQ+ community, and even their allies have been fighting desperately to get the Amazon-owned company to do something about seemingly endless hate raids.

The streaming community has come together since August to spread awareness of these racial issues via the hashtags #TwitchDoBetter and #DoBetterTwitch. There have also been boycotts, and several streamers have left the platform entirely. At the time of this writing, Twitch still has not implemented meaningful changes to their policies regarding the attacks.

It’s obvious that something has to be done by Twitch to address not only the ongoing raids, but to help faciliate creators of color to succeed on their platform. There are talented content creators, and they come in every shape, size, color, gender, and orientation.

Will Twitch do the right thing and address these issues? So far, they’re simply allowing an already terrible problem to fester and grow.

Are you frustrated with Twitch’s inability to tackle important social issues? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!