Mix It Up Tutorial: How to use Filtered / Banned Words to Automatically Remove and Educate about Hate Symbols

Guides & Resources
Written By Anthony J

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet. 

I’m AffectorOfChange (he/they) and I’m happy to guide you through the process of setting up your Mix It Up Bot to help optimize the Filtered/Banned Words feature so that specified hate symbols can be removed from your stream automatically.

The bot can also post a link in chat to educate folx about why certain words or emotes are not allowed in your stream - all without having to have you, or your moderators, say a word or even click a mouse. 

This tutorial can be applied to a variety of contexts, but I am hoping to teach you the basics of this feature using the example of removing the dreaded Pepe the Frog emotes from your space. 

If you’re interested in a video tutorial, this will be coming out soon and you will find it later on my YouTube channel and embedded in this blog post.

Context 

Dog Whistle

Plainly put, a dog whistle is defined as a coded message that is communicated through words, symbols, or phrases, that are commonly understood by a certain group of people, and not by others. 

It is related to the real life object of a dog whistle, a training tool that emits a sound at a high frequency heard by kanines, but not by humans. 

Hate and political groups often use dog whistles to signal comradery with one another while trying to also evade detection. Words like “woke” and “DEI,” for example, have been rampant in the lexicon of far-right political groups like MAGA to promote an anti-LGBT and Racist agenda.

White supremacists and neo-Nazis also use a lot of dog whistles on social media in order to  identify one another, as well as to attempt to evade detection. Some examples include use of the number “88” (the numerical code for “Heil Hitler), certain numbers or percentages like “13%” as a substitute for making negative comments about the United States’ Black population, or posting Medieval art out of context, promoting the image that white supremacists are justified to fight for their homeland.

White supremacists also attempt to use the strategy of dog whistling to turn popular phrases, or even brands, into twisted versions in an attempt to uphold the agenda of hate, such as the Operation Google movement on 4-chan.

Pepe the Frog

Once a beloved silly little frog meme, Pepe the Frog has unfortunately become a victim of this agenda of hate groups. 

Pepe was created by Matt Furie, a comic artist, back in 2005 as part of his single-panel comic called Boy’s Club. After a 12-year run of being a popular meme-worthy character, particularly on 4-chan, its creator in 2017 chose to retire Pepe. His creation in that time had been co-opted by the alt-right on that platform, into a synonymous symbol and face of their, racist, homophobic, toxic beliefs. 

It’s fairly challenging to actually kill a beloved meme. Pepe emotes are still being commissioned and uploaded by Twitch streamers both on the platform, as well as by third-party emote services such as BetterTTV.

Given the connection between Pepe the Frog and white supremacy, many content creators on Twitch have a rule for their chat outright banning the use of these popular emotes. However, there are plenty of viewers and streamers on the platform that continue to use Pepe the Frog, and many of them are unaware of its connection to hate groups. 

If you’re interested in automating the moderation around this hate symbol, feel free to follow along with this Mix It Up tutorial.

Filtered/Banned Words

To access this feature of the Mix It Up Bot, click the menu on the top left and select the section titled Moderation. 

Here there are two large boxes, one for Filtered Words on the left and one for Banned Words on the right. 

  • If a user posts a Filtered Word, the user’s message will automatically be deleted by the bot. 

  • If a user posts a Banned Word, they will automatically be banned from the stream, also deleting the message.

It is my suggestion to use the Filtered Words section for this tutorial.

In order to filter Pepe the Frog emotes, including through third party services such as BetterTTV, the following words will need to be entered, each on a separate line:

  • PEPE

  • *PEPE

  • PEPE*

The asterisk (*) serves as a wild card, meaning if there is text before or after the word “Pepe” the message will be automatically deleted. This does not include 100% of these types of emotes, but it will cover a lot of territory. 

Strikes

Users can have 1, 2, or 3+ Strikes in your Moderation settings in Mix It Up, and commands can be specified to be triggered automatically if a user is given a strike. 

For this tutorial, toggle on the Apply Strikes button in the Filtered/Banned Words section and I’ll provide you the parameters for commands.

Optional Commands

Education Link Command

The first command to add is an informational command that provides a link in the chat to this article about the Pepe the Frog emote’s connection to hate groups (or any other similar article).

Add this new command, title it as desired (something like !hate would be good) and set up a basic Chat Action command with the following:

Moderation Strike Command

Return to the Moderation section of Mix It Up and add an identical Conditional Action in the 1 Strike, 2 Strikes, and 3+Strikes Command sections, linking it to the previously created !hate command:

  • First Value: $moderationreason

  • Compare: Contains

  • Second Value: PEPE

  • Download the .miucommand file

Congrats! The next time a user decides to use a Pepe the Frog emote in your stream’s chat, the message will now be automatically deleted and a link to this article will be posted. 

Feel free to add other hate symbols and language you’re interested in filtering so that it is easier to enforce your stream’s community guidelines. 

Did you find this Mix It Up tutorial helpful?

I’m a Mix It Up Main, meaning I use Mix It Up for 90% of what I do for my streams on Twitch. I’m interested in making more content like this tutorial on using the filtered words moderation feature and would love to know what kinds of tutorials you are interested in!

Check out other Mix It Up Tutorials such as Automatic Shoutouts Made Easy

Feel free to repost this tutorial on social media, and be sure to tag me!

Interested in supporting my work? Feel free to send me a Ko-Fi or purchase my Spoons for Spell Slots supplement over on itch.io!

Anthony J
Next

Deconstructing Dungeons and Dragons 50-Year Evolution of Race (p. 2)