Twitch implements new ‘shared ban’ tool to help flag troublemakers

Spread the Bad Word

As part of the continued fight against the tidal wave of online toxicity, Twitch has implemented a new tool that it hopes will help streamers to collaborate against regular and/or returning toxic viewers, offensive commenters, and stream-ruining raiders.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the new “Shared Ban Info” feature will allow Twitch streamers with Partner and Affiliate status, as well as those who share a mutual follow status, to share with one another their ban information, allowing other streamers to make a note of the names of previously blocked Twitch users — lest they come crawling into your own stream. This system hopes to give the wider community a “heads up” of sorts on some of the usernames that frequently find themselves blocked from channels.

The Shared Ban Info feature is the latest release in Twitch’s increasing efforts to clamp down on toxic behavior, derogatory language, hate raids, and personal attacks logged against its huge streamer base. The service recently improved its notification system to signify to banned users exactly why they were banned, while its new Twitch Ban Evasion Tool was instilled in an effort to prevent banned users from returning under new guises.

Online toxicity remains one of gaming’s biggest and most enduring problems. From headset chatter during online play, to the comment sections of websites, Twitch streams, YouTube videos, and social media accounts, the spreading of hateful, racist, and homophobic language have been emboldened by the general anonymity of the internet, as well as an overall lack of real consequence from the platforms that host the abuse.

It is a concern that is likely to continue as long as humans are able to interact with humans in a non-face-to-face capacity. Hopefully, technology will continue to adopt new methods to mitigate the problem.