FerociouslySteph Twitch Moderation Controversy

About

FerociouslySteph Twitch Moderation Controversy refers to a dispute between supporters and detractors of Twitch streamer FerociouslySteph over a number of issues, including her conduct on the site, position on Twitch's advisory council and the suggestion that games forcibly remove voice chat. In mid-May 2020, FerociouslySteph was added to the list of members on the Twitch Safety Advisory Council, sparking online discussion and debate across a number of sites and social media platforms.

Background

On May 14th, 2020, Twitch^[1] announced the founding of a Safety Advisory Council in a blog post (seen below) with the intention of combating harassment on the site. Members of the council include Alex Holmes, CohhCarnage, Emma Llansó, FerociouslySteph, Dr. Sameer Hinduja, T.L. Taylor and Zizaran.

FerociouslySteph, in particular, sparked a backlash by many online due to her association with Otherkin, her political perspectives, and her controversial opinions about certain mechanics revolved around online gaming/streaming, such as the removal of voice chat from games.

Developments

Online Reactions

On May 14th, 2020, following the announcement, FerociouslySteph further added discourse to the controversy during a livestream on Twitch^[2] when she said, “I said a lot of people with Cis, white-male-sounding voices are here telling me that voice chat is a problem, and that is a fact. Y’all have voices that aren’t marginalized, coming in and saying, ‘just mute,’ ‘it’s not an issue,’ ‘everyone faces harassment,’ I’ve heard it all …” The clip appeared later that day on Reddit’s^[2] r/LivestreamFail sub when Redditor^[3] DasEvoli posted it under the title, “Ferociouslysteph (Member of the Twitch council) thinks only White Cis Males are against banning voice chat,” receiving over 7,000 upvotes and 412 comments from mostly outraged users.

On May 14th, 2020, a clip of FerociouslySteph roleplaying a moaning deer while getting her head scratched by her partner on stream (shown below) was posted to the r/LivestreamFail sub by Redditor^[4] kevinoftheshire under the title "twitch staff btw." The post was upvoted over 27,700 times and received 348 comments from Redditors. The reception would go on to inspire targeting of FerociouslySteph herself, which resulted in the thread being locked by a moderator with the comment, "You can be weirded out by something without resorting to threats and other weird shit, Jesus Christ guys."

On Twitter,^[5] Twitch tweeted about the new council on May 14th, 2020, receiving a mixed response from users. Twitter user AntiMagicDuck replied to the post (seen below) voicing their displeasure by saying, “Decisions like this make me incredibly glad I dropped Twitch years ago and haven't looked back. FerociouslySteph is an extremely, genuinely bigoted, disgusting person and shouldn't have any kind of power over anyone. It's impressive how one company can be so wrong so regularly,” which was liked 233 times and retweeted six times.

In support, Twitter^[6] user vileolet replied to FerociouslySteph’s retweet of the announcement (shown below) and said, “I can't think of anyone more deserving and capable. <3”

Several other Twitch streamers then joined in on the debate to voice their opinions on the controversy. One such example comes from Twitch^[7] streamer Knut (seen below) who expressed that her comments were hypocritical.

On May 15th, 2020, the controversy appeared in a Reddit^[8] post on the r/OutOfTheLoop sub when Redditor LundqvistNYR asked, “What's up with FerociouslySteph and all the voice chat discussion?” The post received over 3,200 upvotes and 877 comments, with the top comment coming from Redditor KyroNoHane who linked two particular tweets from FerociouslySteph as the primary cause of the controversy.

Search Interest

External References