Abstract
The rise of Twitch during the COVID-19 lockdowns was a rapid one. People were stuck working from home and opening a Twitch stream is like listening to a podcast. A person can tune in and out of a stream easily and it is a decent way to make the day feel faster. Names like xQc, Pokimane, and Ninja pop up in news articles and are more recognizable than old YouTube channels. But quality streams needs quality content moderators to ensure the chat is behaving. When streaming on Twitch, they recommend at least one active moderator per 600 viewers. If the streamer makes money from their subscribers, donations, and viewership, this does not guarantee that the moderators will make money. The Twitch streamer would have to pay their moderators because Twitch does not pay them individually. In addition, most moderators are just fans of the stream; they choose to moderate the stream because they want to show their support for the streamer. Hours and hours of work, regulating nasty chat behavior, and banning people harassing a streamer that feels like a friend, are all tasks of a moderator. Social media content moderation has always been a rough job to have, with low wages and a lack of mental health care. Moderators deserve better; we all deserve better.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Content Moderation, Social Media, Video Game Culture, Video Game Streaming
