Harassment & DOXXING
For 9 months I have been reporting someone who has been harassing me over and over with NO response from Twitch. When will there be a real system in place to protect streamers??
This person has made numerous accounts with usernames that have shared personal information including my phone number, addresses, and names of family members. I have reported, banned, blocked, and had my MODs do the same, but nothing has ever been done on Twitch's end.
If others are going through this, I want to hear about it and what Twitch is going to do to help those of us who are dealing with long term harassment and the emotional duress that follows it.

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SCGsWorld commented
Same. Somebody has harassed me. made some horrible rumors and lies about me to others, defamed/slandered made fake threatened drawings of themselves, and then said it was me when I had them all blocked. doxxed my real name/phone number/address, and I also have blocked this person and all their friends, I even involved the police and made a ton of police reports against this person and their friends and even got a lawyer.
so far twitch or other social media isn't doing anything towards this person and their friends.
i have quit the vtuber community and Twitch and other because this made me goes through suicide problems and many problems. -
jayPane commented
@kozaka @awdstream I have gone to the police and filed a police report, I've filed a report with the FBI and Twitch has done nothing and continues to do nothing. While Twitch continues to do nothing, I've also had to enroll in my state's confidential address program and change my phone number. All because of a Twitch cyber stalker who won't stop harassing me.
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AWDstream commented
@Zozsaka
Hungary is different from America.
From experience, you have to hire a lawyer to start an investigation, they will go to Twitch and ask them to provide anything. Which costs thousands of dollars to even start an investigation.
The police do nothing until your life is in actual danger with a physical threat. And even then, American police are worthless and will take months to even do anything if they decide to.
Social media threats are considered a form of bullying, which authorities consider laughable. Bullying to the point of suicide is also not considered a crime because legally nothing can be proven.
You would think things would be cut and dry, but it's not. -
Kozaka commented
Yes, that's the point. If you go to police, Twitch has to provide the Name, Address, IP address or anything they know about that account. This way you could find the person behind the account. Over internet provider, they could look, who had that IP address and you got the Name and Address in your hand. I believe, if somebody online say, that he will kill you or so...or whatever, is the same if he says this for you personally. And therefore it is illegal because you are in danger.
For a short time, you could enable Telephone registration or how it is called for your chat if account is not older like 2 Months or so. And then new accounts will be filtered what is just created to harass you. Don't wait for Twitch, they do not really read what we writing here.
I speaking from my country, Hungary.
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AWDstream commented
@kozaka the police in America will only do something if you actually know the name and address of the person harassing you. This is what an officer told me directly on the phone even when it comes to online harassment.
You can fill in the rest on how that doesn't help. -
geekade_evan commented
@kozaka What country is that? because in the United States that isn't the case. A police report is a great first step, but then it should fall on Twitch to do something. Twitch needs to act in some way to protect their content creators, not just take their money. When it comes to playing copyrighted music on a Stream they are all up in your business, but harass someone for nearly 3 years straight... no big deal.
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Kozaka commented
@Midgstar just call police, and make an report there. Then Twitch HAS to do something. Writing to here? Solves nothing. Twitch does not care.
In my country online harassment is a crime. So they go to jail.
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midgstar commented
Someone's been harassing me for over a year yet nothing is done by twitch or twitter. This person even targeted my child who is mental ill, yet nothing even with proof, they even said they would "sell" me cause I'm a Pacific Islander. I've had men harass me because of this streamer, still nothing. This streamer even stated they wanted me ded. Companies don't care about little people, they only care about numbers and money. The only time they care is when someone dies or does a horrible crime.
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VIEmplsmn commented
5-6 months into the COVID pandemic, I began streaming full time. My channel grew a lot, and I was asked by a few members to let them be mod, I figured "why not?" I made a few Mod.
As I got to know one person, we began playing games & I started noticing unsavory, toxic behaviors in-game, so I began to withdraw/stop playing with them. I Uninstalled the only game we played and they withdrew for a while.
At one point, this user said he'd lost access to his account. I took mod off of him, and decided to hold onto it until he cleared it up. Before this, they'd come back to say things like "if someone comes in named like me, ban them". Once, someone did, and it was a racist version of their username at that time, saying "black lives don't matter". They also "came back" just as I had been follow-botted for the first time, DM'd me and somehow knew that the follow-botter was "Using a BotNet, making it impossible to ban this user or stop". To which, I was very suspicious and banned them, as I had had enough of their unsavory, and odd behavior.
I also began noticing that their identity/username would fluctuate between a username calling them an "e-girl", and between their usual. When I asked them about it, they said "I do this to catch perverts/pedophiles".
Later, they were no longer a moderator and very unhappy about it, I assume, and they began follow-botting to 1000's a day, making harassing usernames to say horrible things that they couldn't say in chat, since I'd just ban them instantly. The worst was when they'd follow-botted, Pinged/spammed EVERYONE in my Discord spoilers of a game i was playing and to say awful, hateful/racist messages. Luckily, we were able to lock down who it was and remove the user/messages/spam. From there, I'd had him blocked(but can still see his username to this day, just to keep track of what he's operating under).
Now at this point, no IP ban(?) And he began becoming more aggressive, as is his follow-bots and hate-raid/harassment bombing. There seems to be no end in sight, except when he'd take breaks or be busy(?). Luckily, nowadays Twitch has the "suspicious user," or "possible ban/suspension evader" features which are great. I have everything in place to counter any kinds of those kinds of actions, nowadays, and I figured I'd share what I have to do and need to have ready to counter anything like this:
1)Follow a& Sub-Only Chat is ready to be flipped; Follow-Only on by default. If you are follow-botted/hate-raided, turn on Sub Only Chat and wait to turn it back off for a while.
2)Have your "Alerts" and "Events" in a separate Group in your OBS so you can EASILY mute them.
3)Have your Chat Bot Announcements(specifically the New Follow Announcements) off. So your chat isn't flooded with Announcements.
4)Install Follower Remover CommanderRoot extension. You can remove followers between timeframe X and timeframe Y by copying/pasting start/end times of the follow-bot/attacks, easily remove the follows and block the users. It even lets you know if they're already marked as suspicious or possible bot accounts.
5)Turn on Phone Verification/Email Verification. These measures ARE annoying for new followers & not great for most new people to Twitch who aren't keen to, but to be honest, if they won't verify, then they probably can't because A)it would result in them not being able to sneak back in on another user to continue malicious activity. Or B)who cares? If a user isn't verifying who they are, then they may have something to hide, and/or you likely don't want them around. They also aren't that serious about being on Twitch if so, and this measure is VERY positive for that reason.
6)DO NOT leave your Discord wide open for all to join! Make it so only Mods and yourself can share a link/invite code. This is so you can monitor incoming traffic, watch for sketchy content/users and keep those kind of users discouraged.
7)Be VERY careful. Dont keep your guard too high, but don't let it down either.. This user continually pops in on a different account, and wants for certain moments to make stabs & start up the cycle again, and it's important to watch for trends.There's no end in sight to my repeat-harassment. Just happened again tonight. I hope Twitch starts actively looking into cases like this. I reported so much, I blocked so much, I've banned so much...it feels powerless sometimes and its terrifying to think how petty, small and unhappy people can be. I'm so tired of being griefed, but luckily my beautiful Mental Health Awareness community and myself ARE something that I love/enjoy, SO MUCH MORE than I have a problem with being harassed by someone so unhappy. It is creepy how obsessed someone can be with trying to make you miserable, or have you quit streaming because THEY are miserable or can't themselves, but it's really just that simple...they're miserable, unhappy people who have to act out towards you to feel good about themselves.
Keep on keeping on.
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AWDstream commented
I am currently dealing with someone who showed up with usernames using my real name and my home address. I don't know how they got it, but I can only assume they took the time and effort to buy my information connected to my email address...
I am doing everything I possibly can to restrict users who are new and don't have verification. I am now scared to even stream because this obsessive stalker is going to keep doing this no matter how many times I ban them. They constantly will show up every report, the new "ban evade" thing doesn't even show up... they will just create a new username and follow me, and that will show up while I stream... This has to stop. and I feel all I can do now is call the police.(update) So I called my local police department. They told me I should do a police report online. The only option is "harassment/annoying calls" and the only way to make a report is if you say you've been physically harmed. So no, police will not do anything... I tried to make extra precautions and StreamElements/Nightbot banned words and etc but I am not going to stream for awhile just for my own safety. Or hire a lawyer for $4k and up to do an investigation and even then I think that's pointless and won't offer any justice.
Twitch... police... they're as useful as I knew they'd ever be and I doubt anyone important that could help will ever see this, I just feel vulnerable to more online ridicule if anything just for making this post.
So lesson learned, just harden yourself to public doxxing.
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h0m3st4r commented
There's one person who goes around throughout a once-big stream bullying other people just because they're better players than him and even attacking the mods and devs of said stream, and for what? His gambling addiction. I've been reporting him to Twitch for months—even some of the victims have been reporting him—and Twitch only took action against him when he said something racist or exceedingly sexual, but both times, he somehow successfully appealed what should've been indefinite suspensions.
Twitch seriously needs to throw the book at monsters like him. Last year.
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Kozaka commented
@midgetstar If I may to give you an advice, go to police, make a report about the problem (in my country this internet harassment is a crime!), then you can contact Twitch about the topic, and then Twitch MUST do something. The real person will be found.
Otherwise, they are not able to help us. Too many reports, too easy to create a new account for bullying reasons.
And also...report it daily, and it will go through maybe! :)
Only way to stop this (but Twitch will never do...silly), is that your real Name with your ID card (+maybe address) MUST be given at registration time and for old accounts. And if somebody do things like that will be banned forever. No duplicated account is allowed. Harassments stopped.
We do not need those "persons" on this platform!
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midgstar commented
I've been harassed by someone who threatened to harm myself and my child. I've been reporting with no response to this issue. Should I keep reporting? The bullying towards my child and myself has to stop. It's getting old and she just won't stop. please help me.
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JemuzuTTV commented
I've been harassed, stalked, stream sniped, and doxxed by the same group of people for almost two years now on this platform. Twitch has absolutely no intention of becoming involved. We are beneath them. They are concerned with money, not people's safety or well being, or the right to have a positive streaming experience that feels safe and inclusive. Do not expect any help from Twitch.
Your best bet is to start a petition for a class action lawsuit under the guidelines that Twitch is not enforcing their own policies, and is knowing allowing this type of harassment. Then hope that enough people become involved that a legal case forces their involvement.
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ChuckG997 commented
My wife and I are experiencing the same thing. I understand that this is a bit like playing whack-a-mole. The tools and avenues for creating burner email accounts are myriad. As long as you only need an email address to follow someone, you're able to harass them regardless of how strong their auto-mod settings are. Twitch needs to give streamers the option to require higher level of security on the accounts that follow, watch, or chat in our streams. Give us the option to suffer the potential cost of lost revenue or growth if it suits our stream. Then those who do not care can leave their streams wide open.
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Kozaka commented
I have the same situation...and I think many of us has this. Since years they do not delete some accounts what I reported many times (after half of the reports I do not even get an "thank you for your report" Email . It is more important to get money from hot tub streamers for Twitch I assume.
Make an online police report and then they have to do something! I will do this next time I face a guy like this.
And I do not know, why Twitch does not do anything in many cases? Why I have to prove what somebody entered into my chat or created an offensive user name? Please! Be pro and log all the chat Twitch!
The only thing that could stop this is that everybody should be identifiable. Everybody should enter at registration:
1) Real Name
2) ID card
3) Address
maybe 4) 2F login (some younger generations will have no phone maybe...then parents phone?).Then nobody will create a 13th account just to harass somebody with the user name or something. Less work for Twitch, more joy for the streamer.
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jayPane commented
Twitch has very clear policies in regards to what is prohibited.
But no action is taken when any streamer harasses anyone.
It has gotten to the point that there's actual news in the media about different harassment cases on Twitch and where Twitch seems to ignore it.In my own case, I have provided a link to the VOD where I am clearly doxed and personally identifiable information is released, I have provided screenshots of whispers from the streamer sent to others urging them to ban me and discussing how they are targeting me, and of a mass email they've been sending.
All to no avail.
And that's just my case. I know on this own platform there are a few who are undergoing similar issues.
And of course the most recent one would be the big streamer who is getting death threats after being doxed by a partnered streamer.
No action taken in any of these instances.
Per Twitch Community Guidelines for Harassment, "Twitch should not be used to incite, encourage, promote, facilitate, or organize hateful conduct or harassment, even against targets off the Twitch services, and doing so will result in enforcement action taken against the relevant accounts."
It also lists "Targeting others with repeated or severe personal attacks" and "Inciting viewers to target another person with abuse, regardless of whether the targets are on or off-Twitch" as categories of harassment.
So my constructive feedback would be for Twitch to actually take action on harassment reports. Because right now, we are left on our own. I don't know about the other streamers but in my case, I've hired an attorney. Because I may be a very small streamer, but as a public figure with a public career outside of this platform, I take defamation seriously. But I wouldn't have had to hire an attorney if Twitch had just banned the streamer responsible.
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KMS_Ultra commented
There seems to be no way to report this sort of thing to Twitch. They have nearly no support in this category, nor do they seem to care.
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ZoeBallz commented
I have been harassed/trolled/stream sniped by certain people EVERY STREAM since February. Twitch do not even reply to my messages. MY STREAM GOT HACKED a few weeks ago and I have asked Twitch for information regarding the hacking. No response. I have asked about emails that I have received supposedly from Twitch but I do not know if they are legit as Twitch have not replied. TWITCH SUPPORT IS VIRTUALLY NON_EXISTANT.