They Will Do Anything to Make You React: Deplatforming Racists from the Brazilian Gaming Community

This study examines the 2020 deplatforming of MilGrau (MG), a Brazilian gaming streamer group banned from Twitch and YouTube after racist harassment, including a shooting-target post referencing the murdered councilwoman Marielle Franco, targeted Black journalist Luiz Queiroga during the #BlackLivesMatter mobilisation. Its central argument is that the campaign succeeded in removing a prominent racist actor from major platforms, while simultaneously exposing the structural limitations of platform moderation, reporting, and legal-compliance systems. The work frames the case as an example of technology-enabled collective organising that can advance anti-racist goals in digital gaming culture, despite persistent corporate shortcomings.

The analysis draws on narrative interviews with three Black and White Brazilian victims-turned-advocates, conducted two years after the events, and on social media material analysed through an intersectional framework. The authors disclose their support for the campaign and their shared political and class positions with narrators, while differing in gender, sexuality, and race. Platform materials and audio were withheld for ethical reasons, which shapes the evidentiary basis of the findings.

Key findings concern the decisive role of human reporting and coordinated user action, set against ambiguous hate-speech policies at Twitch and opaque reporting processes at YouTube. Brazilian platform representatives initially ignored the mobilisation, and attention intensified only after U.S. executives became aware of it. Enforcement outcomes were uneven: Twitch and YouTube permanently banned MG accounts, causing financial harm to the group, whereas Twitter and Xbox Live did not remove it despite apparent violations. Xbox's response was delayed and limited, distancing the brand from MG only under public pressure and without judicial action.

The authors conclude that platform structures, shaped by largely White leadership and claims of neutrality, allow racism to circulate and generate profit, while social justice mobilisation can exploit platform affordances in ways whose scalability remains uncertain. The Brazilian Black gaming community emerged with strengthened supportive networks, though lasting institutional change remains limited.