Right now, it is basically impossible to verify your accounts in these 'restricted' chats without getting a phone number. Sure, it prevents trolls from messing with the chat, but it also locks millions of other users out of the experience. If they don't have a phone number to verify with, how are they supposed to verify their account? What if they aren't allowed to use their family's phone number? What if there phone number does not work with verification? You see? There are a lot of problems that come from having this forced phone verification in certain chats. Some users are unable to verify, so they will not be able to engage with the streamers, which is the WHOLE POINT of having a chat on a streaming platform. I say that you make it easier for people to verify their accounts by either allowing use of VoIP or landlines, or providing some sort of support to the people who are unable to verify their accounts, because there are a lot of people (including me) that know how annoying this crap is, and this would save them tons of hassle and allow them to start engaging with the streamer. If they do start to break the rules, THEN you should force no VoIP or landline to keep the troll from coming back. I feel this would be a much better implementation and would save viewers tons of hassle if they find these types of chats.

Considering that their data just leaked, yeah, trusting them with my phone number does not feel very apt.