Trans Latina drag queen subjected to vile hate raid wants Twitch to know she won’t be ‘pushed out’
Jupiter Velvet.
Transgender Latina drag queen Jupiter Velvet was doxxed, deadnamed and threatened with violence on her Twitch stream.
The streamer was celebrating her one year Twitch anniversary when she was hate raided by abusers.
This is currently a major issue on Twitch, with those from marginalised communities targeted with vile, toxic abuse.
Jupiter’s stream became filled with accounts with Nazi symbolism in the profile pictures, who deadnamed her, shared her address, and threatened her with violence. This continued on her Discord channel and on Twitter.
“My private information and safety has been violated and I am scared for my life,” Jupiter told Pink News.
One of the accounts leaking her address has been linked to one of the alleged instigators of hate raids sued by Twitch.
“I’ve been in a constant state of panic for myself and my family,” says Jupiter. “As a transgender Latina, I’m already on high alert because of how I move through the world but this is on another level.”
Since the stream on 10 September, there have been additional threats and anonymous posts.
“Any sense of security I thought I had feels violated,” she said. “I’m doing everything I can, I’m talking to lots of people and making sure that this isn’t just a tweet I’m putting out that eventually dies down. I don’t want this nightmare to continue for myself or others.”
❗️Boost ❗️ Got doxxed while live and had my life threatened on @Twitch this past Friday. My dead name was leaked as well as my address. A photo of my house as the profile photos. They were relentless and these screenshots are only the half of it. #TwitchDoBetter @TwitchSupport pic.twitter.com/A0jIv5HLE2
— jupiter velvet 🇵🇸 (@jupitervelvet) September 12, 2021
Jupiter was a local entertainer before the pandemic forced her to look elsewhere for work, resulting in a natural move to Twitch where many drag performers have found an audience.
“I’ve built a really supportive community, it’s connected me with a lot of other streamers but it’s also been my only source of income to pay bills and purchase my hormones, which I’m really grateful for,” she says.
“After what happened, I debated if I should continue streaming or if I should pull the plug and be done but it’s only made me more fiercely protective of what I’ve built for myself. I won’t be pushed out and I’m going to continue doing what I love.”
.What will it take? For someone to wind up dead from a swatting like it’s happened in the past? These literal nazis are spreading marginalized peoples address around on forums. HELP US. @Twitch @TwitchSupport https://t.co/OIklWJDCDV pic.twitter.com/1mxTZVQbrM— jupiter velvet 🇵🇸 (@jupitervelvet) September 13, 2021
Jupiter is thankful for streamers like RekItRaven, Lucia Everblack, and ShinyPen – key voices in the #TwitchDoBetter movement – for providing support, but Twitch themselves need to do more.
“I’m sick of the surface level activism from Twitch staff,” she says.
“Twitch needs to take accountability for the attacks that they have enabled. After active campaigning by the community, Twitch released the identity tags back in June as a Pride month publicity stunt.
“Visibility with no follow through to keep the vulnerable and marginalized safe does not mean equality. This surface level rainbow capitalist bullsh*t serves no one but Twitch’s social standing.”
Jupiter Velvet.
Jupiter feels Twitch needs to improve the security and safety measures in place for streamers, including a designated streamer safety taskforce that vulnerable creators can turn to for support. This is especially necessary when Jupiter feels the police support was insufficient for cyber harassment.
Other initiatives could include best practice guides for streamers to protect their identity, a unified command centre for important settings and safety features, and a slow roll out of streamer features like raids and hosts to those with trusted longevity on the platform.
These are in addition to widely recognised necessities like blocking accounts made from the same email, better moderation of profile pictures (to avoid swastikas), and the prevention of bot accounts being created en masse.
“Accountability needs to be taken,” says Jupiter. “Twitch can no longer ignore the issues affecting those who they so proudly and conveniently care about during Pride month but then abandon us when we are put in danger through their platform.”
No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they stand for. This is not the community we want on Twitch, and we want you to know we are working hard to make Twitch a safer place for creators. https://t.co/fDbw62e5LW— Twitch (@Twitch) August 20, 2021
Twitch has stated they are working on a solution to hate raids. Yet while the lawsuit filed may scare off future abusers, it does little to protect those victims affected on the platform.
Until then, the number of victims will continue to grow.
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