Trans streamer shares the vile abuse she’s received – but Twitch have banned her, not her trolls
Anne Atomic. (Twitter)
Trans streamer Anne Atomic, recently banned for her hot tub streams, has hit out – saying that Twitch doesn’t care about trans people.
Atomic was banned for “adult nudity”, despite wearing a standard bikini and streaming in the dedicated hot tub category as specified by Twitch terms of service.
The inclusion of the category brought an increase in viewers, which in turn led to raids from transphobes who mass reported her, leading to the ban.
Though she’s appealed the indefinite suspension, she’s had nothing beyond an automated response from Twitch.
I guess this is what happens when you're transgender and try to break into a completely cis world. Nothing violated, nothing different from my other streams – just normal hot tub clothing that had been worn many times before. Will anyone care? I doubt it. pic.twitter.com/qhiOUo8z0d
— Anne Atomic 🔥 (@AnneAtomics) June 29, 2021
Speaking to Kotaku, Atomic says her ban demonstrates the limits of Twitch’s dedication to representation.
“I have little doubt I get constantly reported by transphobes/misogynists on the platform,” she said. “I really can come to no conclusion except that they either triggered an auto ban due to reports volume that no one bothered to review since I’m not a partner, or that I scorned the ire of a Twitch admin who did not like what I was doing.”
She also said the rise in traffic, and transphobia, stems from using the newly-introduced transgender tag.
“I think it’s just inevitable with the tag. We aren’t forced to use it, though. I could easily stream without putting that I am trans anywhere and no one would question it. But I prefer not to hide who I am, and I use the platform as a means to educate people,” she said.
Following the article, Atomic has taken to Twitter to share a “tiny fraction” of the hate she’s received from viewers on Twitch. And while these transphobic accounts still exist, she remains suspended.
Here's just a TINY fraction of what a typical night streaming as a transgender person on Twitch looked like for me. Guess what? Over a month later, and ALL those accounts still exist. Yet, mine doesn't, and I can't even get so much as a canned response from @TwitchSupport pic.twitter.com/A7NZd20bIR— Anne Atomic 🔥 (@AnneAtomics) July 9, 2021
“Twitch likes to pretend as if they care and put a nice “inclusiveness” sticker on their company, but when a trans person actually tries to change things for the better, they decide it’s easier to just ban the trans person than to actually support them,” she says.
“My Twitch account was created in 2011. I’ve spent 1000s of hours on Twitch and found a lot of solace there when depressed over the years. I never said one thing even slightly rude to anyone in that time. I always saw it as the future. The direction they’re choosing saddens me.”
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