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.
-
Anonymous commented
Why put effort into measures that can be easily and quickly circumvented & most people are already aware of how to do this? It's like being a radio station - you can add all these preventative measures, but you can't stop idiots from calling the radio station short of taking away all the phones nearby. Even then, they can still listen to the radio.
You're asking for a private streaming feature and it's just gonna cause problems down the road. There's enough issues with copyrighted stuff and trolls re-streaming adult stuff.
-
catfishsushi commented
The complete cutoff from banned profiles is good security, as today, I had a Ubuntu Host Spider Bot named "electricallongboard" and other such Bots, turn back on my turning off of channel auto-hosting, and a bogus complaint about music rights in War Thunder, was there. This must STOP, who owns TwitchTV? the Rightful Creators? or the Bots?
-
Ravenhart commented
This is a good idea but maybe it shouldn't be the same as banning. Maybe a "block all contact/communication" feature that could do all this. Banning from a chat is a lot different than blocking someone from everything. Accidental bans happen and making banning do all this effect too many innocent ppl in the end.
-
DancingViru commented
I second all of this. The community guidelines imply that it's the streamer's responsibility to have the chat moderated but these kind of loopholes allow abusers to continue harassing & disturbing the broadcasters & the chat. Which is why it's essential for the broadcasters to have the option to deny channel content for different types of viewers!
-
darthclide commented
@LordBoogzor but this ties into Twitch's complacency about updating their flawed whisper system. It doesn't matter if the OP suggestion is accepted, when they can simply whisper anyone on all of twitch even if they were banned from ALL streams in existence...
That being said, I firmly believe that trolls get a kick out of getting a notification from a stream they are banned from, watching a stream they are banned from, and seeing a chat they are banned from. The icing on the cake is whispering insults to viewers such as "this streamer is a pedophile". Please Twitch, help the small streamers!
-
Bul commented
Hej there, yesterday i had a troll in my channel. Nothing special...
Ignored him, banned him without reaction. Done
5 Mins later hes back with a new account. 1 sentence - banned.
5 Mins later hes back with a new account. 1 sentence - banned.I know, it is not possible to turn this off, but why does a Ban not include the ban of the Ip? Yes, the User could restart his Router/modem, get a new Ip and come back, but this would be a lot more work then just creating a new account.
If this is possible, maybe this would be an idea to make the life of trolls harder a little bit.
-
LordBoogzor commented
Good idea but all they have to do to get around it is to log out. So it would not be so effective imo. It would need an IP ban option for it to really take effect.
-
Lewis commented
Shadow banning would be nice, their messages appear to send but don't, and the stream appears online for them, but it's not the actual stream.
-
aperez8696 commented
Anonymous, yes, something like that (stream ban, full ban) should be a possibility (hopefully) in case we get any stalkers or rude people coming back and trying to cause more uncomfort on the streams.
-
UncleStanBana commented
This is totally a great idea, but I consider calling this "getting stream banned" like Twitch should have a streamban button. I believe ya dude.
-
aperez8696 commented
Shad0w1988, that is true, but if they keep it up, then we can report users, and they might get IP Banned or Suspended from gaining access to Twitch's website.
-
Shad0w1988 commented
they just make a new account if they get fully banned
-
aperez8696 commented
There should be a new ban feature in which broadcasters and moderators can "fully ban" a user from the stream by stopping the video stream, removing them off of the viewer list, and hiding both the video and the messages in the chat (Basically give them a blank page with the message saying "You are fully banned from this channel.") so that banned users won't have to stalk broadcasters or cause any rude behavior on their streams anymore.