The San Fransisco Police Department was forced to act today after multiple threats were made over social media about shooting up Twitch HQ. Twitch responded to these threats by emailing employees and telling them to work from home for the day. They also issued a statement, saying, “We were made aware of a threat against our San Francisco HQ on Tuesday, and have been working directly with law enforcement as they investigate. The safety and security of our employees is our top priority, and we are focused on ensuring this is resolved quickly and safely.”
No active threat
The SFPD have since stated that the threat was made yesterday on social media. It was then made again this morning, along with a follow-up message that said the threat was not a joke. According to Officer Adam Lobsinger of the SFPD, “It was just a follow up. As of this moment we do not have an active threat and it is being investigated.” Hopefully, the police will be able to track down those responsible for these threats. The swiftness of the response of the police is, at least, reassuring.
Twitch is the largest live-streaming platform in the world. The Amazon-owned company is, unfortunately, another victim of the shootings and violence seen across America. This also isn’t the first time we have seen a platform like Twitch involved in such attacks. In April of last year, YouTube was actively attacked by a disgruntled content creator. That attack left four innocent people injured and the perpetrator dead. A recent shooting in El Paso also seemed fueled by the platform 8chan, which left 22 people dead. 8chan has since been discontinued by the service provider.
It’s easy to see the world as one full of violence and hate, but many have always pushed for gaming to be a space of inclusion and companionship. These violent acts have impacted so many people across the country, and we can only hope that the gaming community can always stand together against it.
Stay tuned to Daily Esports for further updates on this story. We’ll make sure to cover them when we learn more.
Published: Aug 7, 2019 08:29 pm