Twitch will now let streamers share info on banned users

theverge.com:

Twitch is rolling out a new safety tool that will allow streamers to share information on users they’ve banned from their chat. Shared Ban Info, as the new function will be known, will allow streamers to cooperate in keeping their communities safe from malicious actors.

Twitch details the process on how Shared Ban Info will work here. Rolling out today, the Shared Ban Info program first requires streamers to create a sharing request. You can request to share ban info with other partners, affiliates, or mutual followers. Once that request has been accepted, when one party bans a user from their channel and that user attempts to chat in a channel that has a Shared Ban Info connection established, that user’s messages will be flagged, allowing mods or streamers to ban or simply monitor that user.

Users who are banned in one channel will automatically be restricted from chatting in another. Streamers have to change their settings in order to allow that user to chat normally, but they’ll always be flagged so they can be monitored as needed. Streamers also have the ability to end Shared Ban Info relationships at any time.

This is one of several new tools Twitch has implemented for the safety of its users. The Shared Ban Info program is an extension of the Ban Evasion Detection Tool that rolled out in November, which uses machine learning to catch people skirting bans.

“Nothing’s more important than the safety of streamers and their communities,” Twitch said in its blog on the new feature. “Feeling comfortable expressing yourself is one of the things that makes Twitch, Twitch and that can only happen when people feel safe doing so.”