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 are happy to announce that we have released an update that addresses some of these points.
Channel Banned users will no longer be able to view the chat, and they will also be removed from your Chat list. There is an issue that has caused us to pause this temporarily, but we expect a fix to be out very soon – stay tuned to the Twitter thread below for the update.
Additionally, if you Block a user, they will not be able to subscribe or follow, and Blocking them will automatically unfollow them.
https://twitter.com/TwitchSupport/status/1243643979897417730?s=20How to Block a user: https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/how-to-manage-harassment-in-chat#BlockWhispersandMessagesfromStrangers
I will leave this topic open for your points about being unable to fully view the remaining content of a channel, and account creation.
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darthclide commented
d4rkfader You are kind of hijacking a thread about permanently removing banned people from watching a stream by talking about removing perma-bans from Twitch. If someone bans you they probably don't want your support anymore (both financially and as a viewer).
And I am unsure what you mean by "read-only chat"? You can already view chat without being logged in and sub only mode doesn't stop you from seeing chat? If anything, we need "followers for X amount of time" chat restriction to expand to "can only see other's chat messages after following for X amount of time".
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MisoNyah commented
I got banned from two streamers because of a two-strike rule (like mentioning other VTubers) breaking on one of the associated Discord servers. These kind of moderators of course flat-out rejected the appeal too and forever banned as such. Even a week or month would be better than forever. And add a way to stay subscribed and add silent support options. And read-only chat.
Banning as it is now is too harsh. Also, I had gifted subs to others for both of the channels, but I can’t give any more support because of the ban. -
MisoNyah commented
This would mean also people that are not logged it shouldn’t be able to view it. Also, some moderators place preventive bans on every channel you may be on if you break the rules on Discord for example. It’d be rather harsh imho to block all viewing.
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mo_ose1998 commented
Well you cant since you can watch streams without an account.
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darthclide commented
NeonP1xels Sounds like my suggestion is exactly what you want: HWID bans. This would stop them from viewing or loading your channel from whichever computer/smartphone they are loading it from. The added bonus is that if they naively just jump to another device without logging out on it first, that device will automatically get HWID banned as well.
But there is basically nothing you can do to stop them from viewing with no account logged in until Twitch adds a feature called "require logged in account to view my stream". But even then, how will you know who the kids are if they don't talk? I guess Twitch could add an option that requires a few messages spoken every hour to watch your stream, but you can see how unfeasible and unfair things get when you want a "perfect" system.
I think HWID bans + no viewing allowed without an account logged in would help you a bit, as well as greatly help those dealing with severe harassment and doxxing.
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NeonP1xels 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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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
@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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twitch.tv/MonicaElleRose commented
If "Edit Stream info: audience: only subscribers" feature was updated to include only logged in viewers would be great to be included in this
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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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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.
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이여누 commented
많은 기회를 줬음에도 불구하고 방송 규칙을 지키지 않아 더이상 그 시청자가 방송을 즐기는 것을 용납하지 못해 강제퇴장을 줬지만 채팅만 못 칠 뿐 방송과 도네는 가능하여 자신의 잘못을 전혀 반성하지 않습니다.
방송인에게 스트리스를 주어 더이상 보고싶지 않은 시청자인데 방송을 보고 있다고 생각하니 너무 기분 나쁩니다.
영구퇴장 된 시청자는 더이상 방송에 들어올 수 없게 해주세요