YouTube and Twitch ain't takin' no sexism

But is moderation ever enough?​

YouTube and Twitch have declared their intention to clamp down on misogynistic and sexist behaviour on their platforms.

Both sites are host to thousands of streamers, many of whom are female and suffer horrific abuse at the hands of trolls.

Anyone who plays online games probably needs little reminder that internet gaming culture is often an unsafe and threatening space for women.

Streaming sites in which thousands of people can congregate in a single broadcast can exacerbate the problem even further.

The BBC spoke to Twitch streamer xCandyLashes, who called out the abuse she receives for streaming games on the platform.

"They tell me they're going to find me and they're going to rape me," she told Newsbeat. "They say they're going to kill me. Anything they can, just to stop me doing what I'm doing. It makes me feel terrified because I don't know what to do about it."

Threats of violence and sexual assault are a regular occurrence, but the issue of misogyny was only brought to the attention of many in the gaming community after feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian was subjected to torrents of abuse thanks to That Un-namable Gaming Scandal of 2015 - aka Gamergate.

Sarkeesian published one week of Twitter hate she received during Lamer Late, and the resulting compendium was extremely hard reading.

Anna Prosser Robinson, programme manager of Twitch, told Newsbeat that improvements are "happening as fast as we can make it happen, but I hope we will continue to gain speed".

"We're testing new technology to provide a more nuanced approach to moderation," she continued. "So that potentially people can use technology to identify messages that might not be automatically banned, but might have a malicious intent or might have words that make someone feel unsafe."

A representative from YouTube sounded rather less dedicated to change.

"Bullying and harassment have no place on the platform and we have clear community guidelines against it," the rep said to Newsbeat. "We want to make sure that YouTube continues to be a place where anyone can come to find connection and community."

Is that enough, YouTube? Are you sure?

Online moderation presents a variety of challenges for gaming and media companies. Automated systems are liable to make mistakes and can't judge each individual incident with the sensitivity of a human moderator.

On the other hand, the scale of the task and sheer cost are barriers to total-human moderation. Most companies strike a balance between the two, but endemic problems like misogyny are not easily quashed.

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