Many people say that female streamers being harassed should âjust turn off the commentsâ or that harassment âcomes with the jobâ, but these only normalize the hatred.
Why the Pokimane vs. JiDion/Ninja Drama is Bigger Than You Think
By Angelika Leal, Contributor
For those who havenât heard the story, hereâs a short summary of Twitch drama that had gone down in January: on January 13, Twitch streamer JiDion decides to send over a hate raid (when scores of fake accounts and/or real people flood a Twitch stream with abuse) to fellow streamer Pokimane, which causes her to end a 12-hour stream. JiDion was (rightfully) suspended for his hate raid. For some odd reason, Ninja decides to get involved and says heâll talk with his representatives about reversing the ban, which Pokimane calls him out for.
Now, there are more legal talks involved, but what I find the most important out of all this is what it means for smaller content creators on the platform.
As Pokimane has stated in one of her tweets, JiDionâs hate raid is more than just an âL + Ratioâ as sheâs constantly been harassed by him and his fans for a long time. The latter was constantly telling his fans to spam her chat, asking other streamers to âgo to war with her,â making sexual comments about her; multiple things that canât be boiled down to a simple âratioâ.
And this isnât just a fight for Pokimane. This has been a constant battle for other female streamers, as well.
This is why I believe this feud is so much bigger than people think. The problem of Twitch chats being filled with inappropriate messages and hate raids isnât exclusive to Pokimane. Her calling it out is important for smaller content creators who donât have a chance to speak up because their platform isnât the biggest.
Not only is it insane that Ninja decided to defend JiDionâwho was eventually permanently bannedâbut the amount of backlash that Pokimane has received simply for standing up for herself is just as absurd. Many people say that female streamers being harassed should âjust turn off the commentsâ or that harassment âcomes with the jobâ, but these only normalize the hatred. Smaller and/or female streamers shouldnât have to struggle to feel comfortable on Twitch. It shouldnât be a fact that a girl will inevitably be harassed when she plays games online.
It was only a few months ago when many people went on a Twitch Strike after the platform failed to protect its users from constant abuse. As one can tell from all this drama, nothing much has improved. If this had happened to someone who wasnât as popular as Pokimane, it mightâve been overlooked entirely.
Long story short, people who think that this is simply about Pokimane whining are missing the entire reason why this is so frustrating for her, and streamers like her.
