Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Twitch has long had a moderation tool that allows streamers to ban unruly viewers from their stream. However, this only prevented them from interacting with the chat and didn’t restrict their ability to actually watch the broadcast. After years of requests, that’s finally changing. Twitch is rolling out an update to the feature that will prevent blocked users from tuning into a livestream.
Twitch announced the moderation update in a tweet today. The company also updated its blog post about managing harassment, with new information in light of the update. By default, when a streamer bans another viewer on Twitch, that user won’t be able to watch their broadcasts or interact with their chat. The ban function has existed on Twitch for years, but would previously only prevent the banned user from viewing or typing in chat. It throttled harassment, but allowed especially bad actors to find other avenues to interact with creators.
The new feature can be found in the moderation settings section of the Creator Dashboard, should streamers wish to enable/disable it. This comes after a long period of requests for such a feature from creators on the platform. It’s also rolling out just over a week before TwitchCon 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Harassment runs rampant on the internet, especially on Twitch. Here’s hoping that this new feature is able to better equip streamers and moderators to keep unwanted individuals far away from their communities. For more Twitch news and updates, be sure to visit our topic page dedicated to the streaming platform.