If you’re a streamer, you’ll quickly learn that not all viewers are watching your streams to relax or chat. Some are there to act unruly, troll, or even harm others. Before you dedicate yourself to streaming, you’ll really need to know how to ban someone on Twitch, just in case you stumble across a malicious viewer and you don’t have any moderators on standby.
Be it temporarily or permanently, banning people can show your community that you do not welcome harmful people in your circle and help weed out problems as you progress in your career. This article will discuss how to ban someone on Twitch and other ways you can keep your chat free of harassment.
How Twitch Streamers and Viewers are Harassed
Harassment can come in many forms. It could be in the form of banned words or actions such as; racial slurs, teasing, spamming, sharing dangerous links, and other harmful material. It could also be trying to ruin a streamer’s coordination in the stream. This doesn’t only apply to streamers, as viewers can also get harassed using any of these methods.
However, Streamers on Twitch often get toxic and hateful viewers and lurking strangers sending unwanted messages to them about sensitive topics. Therefore, learning how to handle harassment should be something every user on Twitch should learn.
This will help reduce offenders and make Twitch’s ecosystem a better place. For example, people banned on Twitch might find it challenging to create new accounts, thus preventing them from attacking for a while.
Tips on Handling Harassment on Twitch
As a consistent streamer on Twitch, you can try several methods to reduce harassment on your channel or Twitch chat before you outright ban them. These methods could include the following:
The Ignore feature
If you are in chat and the person keeps sending you strange whispers and harassing you, you can choose the ignore option. All you need to do is type /ignore (Username), and you won’t see any messages from the person.
Blocking Users
You can block a user from interacting with or responding to your messages. When you block a user, you remove them from your follower list, prevent them from whispering to you, and many other features. This method is very effective but short-term compared to banning someone on Twitch.
To block any user on Twitch, type Block {Username of person}, and you’ve blocked them. Of course, if you decide to revert this for a good reason, You can still see the people you have blocked in your settings.
Blocking whispers from strangers
If many unknown people are harassing you constantly, but you have no idea who, you can block people you don’t know from sending you whispers. This setting is, by default, enabled for Twitch. Leaving it on can prevent spam, lurkings from unwanted people, and harassment from strangers.
Clearing Chat
You can clear your chat messages up to 200 lines when they are full of harassing messages from people you don’t know or spammers. To ‘clear chats,’ Type the command ‘clear.’
Don’t let trolls make you rage (Image Credit: tyler1)
If all the options mentioned above are not working, you can ban viewers completely from your chat. They will not be able to interact with you again once you have restricted them. However, only a moderator or a streamer can do this. Once you ban them, they also won’t appear in your chatters list, and cannot view or participate in your chat.
Here are three ways viewers can be banned on Twitch:
- Click the ban user button directly in the chat
- Click the ban button on the user badge that appears when you click on the username
- Use the chat command /ban {USERNAME}
Conclusion
Harassment is not allowed on Twitch, and you can take any action if necessary to protect yourself. As a streamer or user, you can defend yourself with these simple tips and use our guide to streaming to stay informed and help make Twitch a safer environment for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
People banned on Twitch cannot interact with your channel’s chats or content. They will also have issues interacting with another channel and might be flagged to the other streamers about their behaviour.
No, they are different. Banning is a long-term solution to harassment or negative users on Twitch, whereas Blocking only affects certain aspects of the channel.
