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new-york-attorney-general-investigating-twitch,-discord-following-buffalo-shooting Twitch

New York Attorney General Investigating Twitch, Discord Following Buffalo Shooting

May 18, 2022Kotaku

In the wake of the horrific shooting that took place in Buffalo on May 14, New York Attorney General Letitia James has officially launched an investigation into the role social media companies may have played in the attack on a supermarket that took the lives of 10 people and is now being investigated as a hate crime. According to the Attorney General’s press release, the investigation will look into how social media may have allowed the shooter to “discuss and amplify his intentions and acts,” focusing on “Twitch, 4chan, 8chan, and Discord.”

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twitch-isn’t-overwhelmed-with-far-right-extremists,-but-it-does-have-a-big-misinformation-problem Twitch

Twitch Isn’t Overwhelmed With Far-Right Extremists, But It Does Have A Big Misinformation Problem

May 3, 2021Kotaku

Twitch’s relationship with misinformation is complicated. In 2020, platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter grappled with their outsized roles in the creation and cultivation of conspiracy movements like QAnon. Misinformation troubled Twitch in a different way, but the platform emerged curiously un-plagued by a comparable extremism epidemic. Now, midway through 2021, Twitch is finally gearing up to combat misinformation.

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twitch’s-pogchamp-removal-was-never-enough,-and-now-it’s-turning-into-a-disaster Twitch

Twitch’s Pogchamp Removal Was Never Enough, And Now It’s Turning Into A Disaster

January 12, 2021Kotaku

It’s not every day you hear about an enormous platform like Twitch swatting the face of one of its most popular emotes clean off and rendering the president’s account indefinitely inert, as it did in the aftermath of last week’s Capitol Building insurrection. But Twitch does do similar things from time to time, on a smaller scale. You just don’t hear about it. That’s a problem.

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twitch-is-winning-the-battle-against-qanon,-despite-only-suspending-a-few-far-right-channels Twitch

Twitch Is Winning The Battle Against QAnon, Despite Only Suspending A Few Far-Right Channels

September 25, 2020Kotaku

Earlier this month, Twitch temporarily suspended a channel called Patriots’ Soapbox. The channel is not enormous, generally pulling 20-50 concurrent viewers over the course of its 24/7 talk show-style streams, sometimes spiking into the 100 range. But Patriots’ Soapbox is notorious: Some credit the organization behind it, which has bases of operation on many different platforms including YouTube and Discord, with having helped start the now-infamous QAnon conspiracy movement, while others acknowledge that it has at least been a key part of QAnon’s evolution and popularization. Twitch’s structure has so far kept Patriots’ Soapbox small, but there are other, potentially…

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