What brands need to know about the Twitch hack

This story was updated to reflect that Twitch has confirmed the breach. Streaming platform Twitch was hacked, revealing the site’s source code, as well as creator payouts. The 125GB leak was posted in a 4chan message board on Wednesday, stating that the leak was intended to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space." Video Games Chronicle first reported on the leak earlier today. Ad Age has reached out to Twitch for comment. Twitch confirmed the breach on Twitter. The leaked Twitch data reportedly includes: The leak comes almost a month after Twitch streamers went dark on Sept. 1 in #ADayOffTwitch, a movement meant to bring attention to the increased harassment and “hate raids” the platform has been dealing with. Hate raids are when a streamer's chat becomes flooded with racist, sexist, transphobic and other abusive messages. These raids have increased in recent months due to bots that can post hundreds of hate messages at once. #ADayOffTwitch stemmed from the #TwitchDoBetter movement. In response to what they thought was Twitch’s slow response to the abuse, streamer RekitRaven created the #TwitchDoBetter hashtag to urge Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, to address the harassment. "Twitch is an essential platform in the modern marketing mix for paid, owned and earned content. so from that point of view anything that disrupts or threatens the operation of the platform is a concern for marketers," said Rob Davis, head of digital innovation at Ogilvy. "From what we understand, the risks from this hack are primarily to Twitch the business itself and not brand partners. If the details we are hearing are true, the code breaches and exposure of the unreleased 'Vapo' product are the most concerning, but again that is a problem for Twitch and not brands." Added Davis: "If we have (re)learned anything this week, it's that major social networks and content platforms are not immune from either internal error or malicious disruption."

What brands need to know about the Twitch hack

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