Faced with the slippages of Internet users on Twitch, two streamers launched the Place de la Paix project: a bot that automatically bans an Internet user from all the project’s member channels, when he is excluded on a single chat.
When it comes to moderation, could streamers succeed where Twitch still fails to make a difference? This is the challenge of a very recent initiative, called Place de la Paix. Purpose ? That streamers join forces to effectively and sustainably punish Internet users who do anything in chat.
Presented on the evening of Tuesday, December 20, the project is carried by two of the most followed personalities of the French-speaking scene: Amine (from the Twitch channel AmineMaTue) and Billy (RebeuDeter). The former is followed by more than 1.8 million people on the live streaming platform, while the latter has nearly 1.1 million “followers”.
A ban on one Twitch channel will result in bans on other channels
the principle of operation of Place de la Paix is simple : Streamers and streamers share a list of nicknames to distribute bans evenly. In this way, when an Internet user is excluded from a channel, he is also excluded from all the other member channels of the Place de la Paix initiative. And the more participating channels, the more effective the penalty will be.
Each channel maintains its own moderation policy.
Place de la Paix focuses on three issues: harassment, sexism and racism. This list may possibly be extended. For the rest, each channel applies its own moderation policy (for example in the event of a spoiler or a backseat).
Very concretely, the objective of Amine and Billy is to propose a new solution ” to fight against sexism, misogyny and racism in the chats. It has been a long time since regular abuses have been observed on the part of Internet users expressing themselves in writing, and Twitch has so far failed to provide a lasting solution to these misconducts.
This new tool is mainly aimed at women who have a presence on Twitch, since they are a recurring target of insults and gritty remarks. Streamer Maghla had illustrated his daily life on Twitter: photomontages, inappropriate remarks, calls for rape, “pornographic deepfakes”, sending photos of penises in private messages, etc.
The Place de la Paix initiative does not claim to provide a solution for all of these excesses, which fall under the scope of the law. Nevertheless, this project supported by two big French streamers aims at least to prevent certain abuses in chats with a tool that is intended to be a deterrent: a ban from a channel will be equivalent to a “ban” on several channels.
Place de la Paix works with the help of a bot. Network member channel moderators can ask the bot to monitor a nickname. Once this is under watch, it is automatically muted for 24 hours on all other channels in the initiative. Then, another team is responsible for validating or rejecting this suspension.
Obviously, the tool has certain limits: Place de la Paix will not be able to act elsewhere if the harassment continues outside of Twitch – on Twitter, for example –. The tool will also not be able to prevent an Internet user from seeing the live broadcast without an account (it is not necessary to have a profile to follow a videographer during its broadcast). This only restricts their participation in the chat.
But what about the case where the unfortunate returns with another pseudonym? It won’t be so easy to come back, says Billy: ” Those who will have another account just behind, you will need a validated phone number to speak in our chats “. This phone number rule and this lengthy procedure must be high enough obstacles to discourage any return.
This is what Billy predicts: After a while, you will no longer have a number to validate on Twitch “. In addition, moderators involved in the project will only need a second to reban problematic accounts, which will instantly ruin efforts to come back with another phone number, for example.
Also ban “haters” on the channels they like
This project has been in the works for a few months. During a stint on Domingo’s Popcorn show, another Twitch personality, Billy had mentioned his idea of a common blacklist. The interested party recognized that the success of such an “index” would depend on the participation of the biggest chains, such as those of Squeezie, Antoine Daniel Zerator, Gotaga or Kameto.
Billy’s reasoning went like this: people who misbehave on chat tend to do so on channels they don’t follow and don’t like. On the other hand, they avoid doing anything within the communities they value. Clearly, a spectator “fan” of Billy will attack Maghla rather than Billy.
Therefore, the sanctions that Maghla can take have no impact: of course, Billy’s “fan” will be banned from the streamer’s channel, but he can still chat on Billy’s chat and on all the other chats. from Twitch. Here, the ban has little impact since the indelicate is sanctioned by a channel that he does not really frequent.
Hence the idea of hitting where it hurts, in the areas of interest of those who behave badly. This is why there is every interest in mobilizing enough well-known streamers and streamers, with diverse activities and communities, to end up reaching the favorite channels of “haters”, so that they really suffer the consequences. of their actions.
Because the communities of Twitch have, for some, a real problem. They seem to have entered into a logic of confrontation with each other. This is indirectly the consequence of a certain fragmentation of the Twitch scene, and its democratization: streamers and streamers also come together by affinity, which gives the impression of a clan.
This phenomenon has given rise to major slippages, and sometimes to forms of cyberbullying. The most emblematic case is perhaps embodied by Ultia, a streamer who is regularly targeted by Internet users because she once reproached the streamer Inoxtag – who had nevertheless agreed with Ultia and admitted his error.
This cyberbullying, which appeared in 2021 during the Z Event event (Ultia and Inoxtag both participated), has not stopped since, to the point that the videographer ended up filing a complaint. Inoxtag, pinned by Ultia for sexist and misogynistic comments, has continually called on his audience to stop attacking him. Billy and Amine also asked the same thing, without much success.
The success of the tool will also depend on its adoption by Twitch stars
Place de la Paix appears in fact to be the consequence of the reframing of Inoxtag by Ultia and various other reproaches which sometimes appear between communities of streamers – another case showing the fractures within the Twich scene had concerned the football match between the France and Spain, because of the presence of personalities deemed inappropriate.
Since the presentation of the tool, some leading personalities and structures have expressed their support for Place de la Paix, such as the Attic Player or Solary, a team specializing in esports. Billy will also participate, as will Amine. The two partners say they are confident about the success of the project, with the support of many other channels.
Hailed, the tool nevertheless raised additional questions: who will be a member of this moderation team dedicated to Place de la Paix? What will also be the security and reliability of the bot, to limit malfunctions? Will it also be open source, for its code to be reviewed? Should the bot be extended to other types of discrimination? If so why ?
SI Place de la Paix is an encouraging and promising initiative, it illustrates the defeat of Twitch in terms of moderation and protection of videographers. It is indeed necessary that individuals voluntarily take things in hand to try to move the lines. If the platform has set up tools over time, they are still insufficient.
It now remains to be determined whether this bot will make a difference, the effectiveness of which also depends on the vigilance of moderators. But if it works, what a terrible failure it would be for Twitch, which will not have succeeded in doing better than a team of volunteers, despite the considerable resources that the platform can benefit from, through Amazon, its parent company.
