Protect streamers by preventing any access to channel for banned users
This is not to take away from the improvements that have already been made, and are being implemented. The work that is being done is greatly appreciated.
However, further change is needed to better protect streamers for banned users. Merely preventing chatting is not enough to deter harassment, stalking, or intrusive bot behavior.
Most people are aware that measures often can be circumvented, that is not an excuse for the lack of protection that currently exists.
Streamers need a way to completely cut off a user from content. I believe the proposed measures are reasonable, and will also provide protection against abuse as well as preventing intrusive bots from squatting in channels without permission.
The proposed changes are:
1. A banned user is prevented from connecting to a channel's chat completely, which means their name does not appear in the list of viewers.
2. A banned user is prevented from viewing the stream itself, on site or using other means.
3. A banned user is blocked from subscribing and following, and will be automatically unsubscribed and / or unfollowed.
4. A banned user is prevented from viewing any other channel information and content, including the streamer's panels, VODs, clips, followers, and followed accounts.
5. A streamer must be able to toggle an option to treat logged out viewers similarly as a banned user, preventing any access until they log in.
Additionally, to prevent excessive account creation, the following measures should be implemented as well:
6. Accounts need to be verified by e-mail.
7. Limit the amount of accounts per e-mail, to 1 or at a maximum 2.
8. Limit the amount of accounts that can be created from a single IP address per day.
Thank you for your consideration.
We’re happy to announce that we have released an additional update to address these concerns. Streamers can now prevent their banned users from watching their livestreams. You can find and turn on this feature in the Moderation settings section of the Creator Dashboard, through the “Stop banned users from viewing stream” toggle.
Please note, this update 1). does not prevent users from watching livestreams from an incognito window or while logged out and 2). does not prevent users from viewing VODs, clips or highlights. We plan to explore extending the functionality of bans further, including but not limited to preventing VOD and clip playback.
In addition, we’ve made an update so that users that are blocked will now automatically be blocked from watching a streamer’s livestreams.
We will leave this thread open for your other points regarding preventing view of other content types and account creation.
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Neon_Pixels
commented
First of all, my full support to people being harassed, and I second the need for tools to manage the problem.
My personal need for this functionality is different, and I'd like to point it out:
On my streams I often have adult-oriented content, not "porny", but rather adult subject matters in the conversation, as well as games with content I don't think younger audiences should watch without parental supervision/consent.
I do my best to clearly signal this content, not only by enabling the "mature audiences" switch, but by adding a 18+ tag to the stream title, as well as icons indicating the content (explained in my panels).
I even have a glowing neon 18+ sign on-screen and even more warning labels.None of this prevents kids from popping up (and kids being kids, it probably encourages some of them), and none of this prevents parents from being concerned when their kids bring up the funny thing that twitch person said.
Since kindly (or not so kindly) telling kids that they shouldn't be watching without their parents knowing doesn't work, I sometimes need the ability to not just ban them from chat, but to make sure they can't watch (parents won't care that the chat is disabled if they can hear my ramblings about adult subject matters on the speakers).
And I'm sure there are many more use cases where being able to block people from viewing the stream is desirable.
I understand that this is not a trivial issue to solve, given how people can just make sockpuppet accounts or the like. Just wanted to share another scenario where this functionality might be needed.
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BurntPork
commented
That would have to be optional, since the only way it could work would be to make it so that you need to be logged in to watch streams, and that means that many streams would lose a lot of viewers if it was forced.
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Landar486
commented
The tech is already there to restrict people from watching sub only streams, why not work with it to restrict people who are banned in the same manner?
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Kane_Nox
commented
It has come to my attention over the last few weeks and in my own stream night before last that allowing banned users to remain in the channel is a BAD idea. I have seen where a few streamers are being harrassed on other forms of social media and even being recorded for said purpose. The night before last I had a user being disruptive in my chat, so I banned him. This user then continued to use the sound alerts extension to repeatedly play the alerts continuing to be disruptive. Much of this would be solved by making banned users unable to access both the stream and the chat. I'm not sure why a banned user is still allowed ANY access in the first place. Many other platforms remove all access by IP address upon the content creator banning the user. This is something that should be relatively easy to code into the streaming platform, and should be done IMMIDATELY!
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SarahJK
commented
Why not just replace the stream with ads for the banned users? Twitch get's more ad money and the streamers lives get that much easier
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SapphireDrew
commented
This idea is unenforceable without a massive overall of how Twitch functions imo. What's preventing them from just viewing and stream sniping by logging out of Twitch? There's no way to prevent someone from stalking someone on Twitch unless they require everyone to have an account and be logged in before viewing streams. Even then, the bar Twitch / Amazon has set for account creation is so ridiculously low that some trolls already have literally hundreds of throwaway accounts; plus VPNs are a thing (which should also be banned).
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darthclide
commented
CandiceGardania They can start with the following:
A. Adding a "logged in only" mode to viewing of your stream. Currently you can have sub only streams, but if they added this mode, the only people who can see your stream or chat, are those logged in with an account. Added to this, they need to ensure that people who are banned can't view the stream anymore. They reported last year that banning accounts now removes them from your IRC (still doesn't stop them from watching the stream incognito) but supposedly were working on making bans stop people from seeing your video.
B. Implement a HWID ban system. People can fake their IP address and create thousands of accounts, but it is almost impossible to fake your system id. While I could accept the compromise of only Twitch staff owning this tool, I think it would be far better if streamers could hit a HWID ban button, and then any time that person tries to watch your stream on that device, it throws up an error for them. No matter if they are logged in or not. The downside would be that trolls would wise up to this and spend most of their time lurking without being logged in, but the beauty is that if the streamer controls this button, they can hit it on ANY account they deem suspicious. And trolls have to come out of lurk mode eventually. And even if they just whisper your viewers outside of the stream, A. If the person believes the lies and trash spoken by the troll and leaves your stream without talking to you, good riddance. They don't deserve your companionship for being so gullible and ready to turn on you. B. If the person comes to you and says "hey username12345 said this nasty stuff about you" you can immediately hit the HWID ban button for username12345. Now unfortunately they could continue to harass you via whispers to viewers (remember this HWID ban only stops them from accessing your stream and any of its content) but that is where Twitch could add an "Ultimate HWID Ban Request" button. If an account gets 3 of these requests, they are permanently banned from accessing all of Twitch on that device. They could adjust that "3" number to some other metric, but the point is that if they add all of these things I just said, trolls would become almost nonexistent on Twitch.
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CandiceGardania
commented
I really don't understand the point of banning people if they are able to still have access to our content and streams. Yes, they can't harass us in chat, which is wonderful, but they can still watch us, screen capture our streams and interact with any on screen games. Banning should ban them completely from even being able to see the channel or videos at all. This would be far more encompassing and would truly help streamers.
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darthclide
commented
@ElleRows brilliant suggestion. One thing trolls love to do is stir up drama and then sit back and watch everything unfold in an incognito window. Forcing them out into the light allows streamers to ban accounts that look suspicious.
That being said, Twitch could get rid of a lot of moderator struggles by adding a HWID ban system. These kinds of things existed all the way back in the days of Battlefield 2 and I would bet most streamers would be glad to see such a tool implemented even if it slightly invades the privacy of user's systems (similar to steam's hardware surveys)
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darthclide
commented
ZoeBallz this is why they should have an IP/email ban button that is not a sitewide ban, but simply a ban on viewing/interacting with your stream from that IP address and email. If they want to harass, they have to login to a new account with a new IP address with a new email, just for you to take 1 second to click "IP ban". Guaranteed that only the most stubborn trolls will keep trying, but it would be far better than the current "easy 1 click VPN" option for trolls.
Or Twitch could do the far easier/better thing which is have Hardware ID bans. Those are very complicated to get around, and the best part is that trolls might not realize they are on the HWID banned list. Aka if they don't logout of their account or change IPs, that new device they hop onto will also get automatically blacklisted.
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chonkikage
commented
When will banned accounts be fully blocked from viewing the stream as well as entire channel? I've been harassed by multiple people post-ban because they are still able to watch my stream and know what games I'm playing. I've had someone install a new game, find my lobby, and harass me in that game begging to be unbanned. I had someone find my discord (because they could view my channel information), join it, and repeatedly CALL ME. I had someone follow me in a raid, months after I banned them, because they continued to watch my stream. That person proceeded to try and talk to me through the other streamer's chat because their chat was overlaid on the stream. This is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous for streamers. Please do something.
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ProfessorLoki
commented
Please make this happen!
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Ernimtir
commented
I don't mind forcing them to do the extra work though. Maybe they get tired of logging in and out to circumvent blocks so they just give up shadow watching content they're blocked from.
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ZoeBallz
commented
Not possible as all they would have to do is logout THEN they can watch any channel.
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TheGracefulBard
commented
When we block and ban someone they should not be allowed to watch our content anymore.
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KazumaGShep
commented
This should have been a thing since day 1
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TonhoFred
commented
Awesome. Please twitch, make this!
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VenomousNinetails
commented
instead of banning someone n chat and waiting for an ip ban that failed the simple task of accounting for vpn.
so Ip ban on command, Mac address Ban on Command, and Hardware ID Ban on Commannd.
Creators and mods of choice would have access, however if a mod triggers any of these it needs to be voted on by 3 other mods ad would trigger a pop up in modview or chatterino.
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iamburgie24
commented
When a user is banned from chat that user will sometimes come back with another account and cause more problems.
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BORNsvg
commented
Im sorry, youre not getting it. twitch users are insulting and harassing people they ban and acting very ******, being very ******, and are encouraging being ******.
baned users cant clip that behavior to report it, and leaves them in a dark hole. Just change it by having clips only viewable to twitch staff for mods or in the report tab, have an option to include a clip for review. not that hard to understand that by including people who have been harassed by the twitch streamers in the group of people who can properly use twitches moderation tools youre helping create a healthier community, instead of the toxic one i am seeing it become, as quickly like a first wave of covid turns bad when no one cares to wear masks when in public.