Limiting participation in chat based on account creation date
To help reduce the blatant and increasing violations of the harassment policy on Twitch, you should implement a new feature that allows a channel to prevent users from participating in their chat if the account is under a certain age, which could be specified specified by the channel.
Currently, it's easy for a user to create temporary email and Twitch accounts and harass a live streaming account under the guise of anonymity. This would add a much needed barrier to entry without requiring a user to follow or subscribe to be apart of a channel. The code currently exists for this feature regarding followers, and this feels like a natural next step for Twitch to help protect their creators.
Hello everyone! Apologies for missing this post - but good news! Now creators can enable phone/email verification for a designated amount of time to verify their chatters.
You can find more information in our blog: https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2021/09/29/securing-your-chat-with-phone-and-email-verification/
Thank you all for the feedback!
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Gaeric commented
I don't see how the addition of a system for a streamer or their moderation staff to allow specific users to join their channel is a bad thing. If they don't want to do so, they don't have to. I do think that a system for it needs to be in place so that people that find a streamer from another platform and maybe don't yet have an account can be allowed to join that streamer's community.
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BBWolfe commented
If you have a proviso that side-steps the protection it offers by giving a direct means for harassment, doesn't that defeat the purpose?
I support this idea as-written, no provisos.
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Gaeric commented
Upvoting with the proviso that I think we should allow people to apply for access to bypass this on a per-channel basis, so that genuinely new people can still join in the conversation if the streamer wants to allow them to do so.
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OGBReacts commented
As someone who constantly deals with trolls who's accounts are created minutes ago, only for them to delete those accounts and remake after I ban them? Yes. Please. This.
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xTypophobia commented
To add to this, of course, we should be allowed to pick the minimum existence time allowed, because we should have that choice! 😊
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xTypophobia commented
Similar to setting chat to Subscribers-Only or Followers-Only mode, there should be a mode that streamers can set where only Twitch accounts that have existed for a period of time are allowed to chat. This weeds out throwaway accounts from chat & makes those with not-so-great-intentions from creating throwaway accounts as more people use it.
With this mode, we can prevent more bullies & harassers from harming our communities & ourselves, unless they really want to risk losing their accounts.
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みそにゃー commented
I wouldn't have been banned from some chat if this feature was in place.
Perhaps it could also work per view (like only subs can talk, rest just emotes). So, the mood of the streamer can be taken into account before saying random things that may be out of place/time. -
Sydios commented
We need this. Twitch Team please!
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QuagsireFourethSmashwold commented
even as one who doesn't stream, I know this needs to happen, for sake of making moderation easier. When a small streamer doesn't have any mods on, and are in a game where they can't just pause, harassment and spam go on until the streamer wins or loses, and depending on the game that could be a very long time. Please do this.
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OddBod commented
Don't know if this is the right place to post, but for anybody stumbling upon this:
I created a bot that automatically bans users under a certain account age , might be a good alternative until Twitch implements this feature, if they ever do. Its not hosted anywhere right now, but you can download and run it yourself very easily. All info and downloads here: https://github.com/TimH96/anti-burner-bot
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WizardOfWitTV commented
This needs to happen!
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KatMakes commented
I would love for this to be a feature I could toggle on. The only people I ever have to ban for harassing content are using burner accounts they know will get banned on sight anyway. It does not deter them from creating these accounts over and over.
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DaveTestaLGN commented
Agreed!
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megzsy commented
No streamer should have to deal with burner accounts made by spammy trolls who just want to be hateful and disrespectful (especially during pride month!!!)
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metagloria commented
Loved this idea so much I made 10 new accounts just to upvote it. (That is a joke. Seriously, please implement this.)
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yourmomsmeatloaf113 commented
This is the best way to stop spam harassment
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PuduhgeWithADuh commented
100% agree with this! So many Mario streamers have been tormented by a specific user who just makes accounts to troll!
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SpiritOfFen commented
Apart from this, it might be worth making it so you have to be *active* with your account for an amount of time too. That way manofsteel doesn't make 200 accounts up front so they are all ready to go when needed.
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Drx_Mario commented
This would help so much with chat moderation. Please do this.
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mexgar commented
This is an amazing idea that should absolutely be implemented. Too many streamers get harassed by trolls using burner accounts, and this would be a perfect solution to protect against this kind of harassment.