Twitch Update Will Let Streamers Ban People From Watching Their Streams

pcmag.com:

Have you ever faced harassment on Twitch? Well, thanks to a Twitch update scheduled for release next month, you'll soon be able to block banned users from watching your streams.

As it stands, Twitch streamers are able to ban users from their chat streams, but that doesn't do anything to stop them from watching your stream. With the new update, outlined during a recent Patch Notes livestream, banned Twitch users will not only be banned from the chat portion of your stream but will also be kicked off the stream in real-time, The Verge reports.

Unfortunately, you can still watch Twitch streams without an account, leaving a loophole for Twitch ban evaders to make their way back to your stream. As it stands, Twitch streamers have no way to ban their viewers via IP address, meaning those people can easily get back on the stream by simply logging out of their account.

Turning on these new features is a simple toggle button in the settings. Once enabled, it automatically blocks any banned users from being able to watch your live broadcasts, as well as stopping them from interacting with anyone in the chat.

In 2021, Twitch launched a Suspicious User Detection tool, which gives creators and mods the power to penalize ban evaders. The system uses machine learning to flag users as “Possible” or “Likely” channel-ban evaders. “Likely” evaders get put into restricted mode, while “Possible” evaders get "monitoring," which lets mods and streamers more easily review their activity.

Also that year, Twitch added phone-verified chat and expanding settings for email verification.

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