Twitch may have just made a change to help address trolls who harass streamers. It’s something that streamers have been asking for for a long time, and it looks to be here! Shadowbans!
After testing in three channels personally, and then having three other people try to replicate it – all achieved the same result, it does look to be a real thing. There’s an outside chance we just managed to catch it in a test phase and it gets rolled back or changed somehow. But for right now, I’m confident that this is a new feature on the platform.
How it used to go:
- Someone shows up in your chat and says something awful.
- You immediately ban them.
- They create a new account (we’ve all seen the ‘account created 3 minutes ago’ trolls) and post the same kind of garbage.
- You ban them again. And this cycle repeats itself over and over until they get tired.
Under this new system, here’s how it looks:
- Someone shows up in your chat and says something awful.
- You immediately ban them.
- They create a new account (we’ve all seen the ‘account created 3 minutes ago’ trolls) and post the same kind of garbage.
- Nothing happens because their message isn’t seen in chat. The streamer doesn’t see it. The mods don’t see it. The viewers don’t see it. But the troll DOES see their message in the chat. They have no way of knowing if they are shadowbanned or not. It just enters the void.
Shadowbans Won’t Stop Trolling But Helps Discourage It
Realistically, it is important to know that trolls won’t simply stop because of this. Determined bad actors will find a way BUT it forces them to do a bit more work. Investing more time in trolling means they can do less of it, and to fewer people. So while this won’t solve everything it does help discourage some of it!
My working theory right now is that it is based upon the IP address when the account is banned. There could be other ways in which it’s tracked, but we’ll need to hear from Twitch on that. Obvious issues include communal WiFi (Airports/Coffee Shops etc). Speaking of, I have reached out to Twitch directly for comment on this and will update if they do decide to reply.
This is a good change for Twitch overall. It’s something that streamers have been wanting for a while. Check any Twitter feed for “Chat Bans” and you’ll see hundreds of people asking for it. And while everyone is fully aware that it won’t be perfect, it’s something – and something is way better than nothing! If 2019 was about building up the ads platform, 2020 is so far looking to be more focused on the community after the dashboard, hype train and now this!
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