Designing to Stop Live Streaming Cyberbullying: A case study of Twitch Live Streaming Platform

Abstract

Cyberbullying is widespread in online communities. The ability to protect users and platforms from the dangers of cyberbullying has become essential. In this work, we conducted a qualitative study of Twitch community to explore the design elements that can influence cyberbullying behavior and the reaction to it on a live-streaming platform. Our study involved interviewing 11 Twitch streamers and six months of Reddit posts from a Twitch sub-reddit community about Cyberbullying. The results of the study illustrate a number of design themes unique to live streaming platform that can promote or inhibit cyberbullying, including most importantly the information asymmetry between broadcaster and viewers. Based on our analysis results, we propose design guidelines for the live streaming platform to better support their users in intervening cases of cyberbullying.