Twitch adds phone-verified chat, expands email authentication settings as users face ‘hate raids’

Twitch today announced that it will introduce new channel-level security measures to curb harassment on the platform. Creators and moderators now have the ability to enable verified chat. This requires chatters verify their phone number and email before they can send messages. You can toggle these settings to allow verified chat for all accounts. These settings will automatically be disabled until the channel opts-in. There are also settings that allow VIPs, subscribers, and moderators to bypass verification. A user does not need to verify their email or phone number twice before being considered verified across all channels.

Twitch users may link up to five accounts with the same phone number. However, if one account is removed from a channel or blocked, all accounts that are verified with the same email address or phone number will also be deleted. This is done to stop people from creating multiple hate account under the same email or phone number. The streamer must only block one person and not five. If a phone-verified account has been suspended, any linked accounts will be also suspended. Although it is possible to use another phone number like a Google Voice account for your site, this creates additional difficulty for bad actors.

Tensions in Twitch are high as many underrepresented creators are subject to targeted harassment via Twitch's raid program. Sometimes streamers will surprise other streamers by inviting their followers to their channel in "raid" when they go offline. This feature is intended to support new streamers. Bad actors have been using the raid feature to harass streamers and send them bots over the last few months. Twitch explained to TechCrunch that not all mass targeted attacks are facilitated by the raids tool and that the platform considers the phrasing a colloquial mistake.

Twitch introduced 350 new channel tags in May that were related to gender, sexual orientation and ability. users requested to find more representative creators. Some streamers used tags to harass others, and Twitch did not have enough tools to stop this harassment. Some creators even created their own safety tools like a panic button that launches a series chat commands. Twitch took action by using the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter to address these streamers. Later this month streamers like LuciaEverblack and ShineyPen (who initiated the tag), launched #ADayOffTwitch. This is a day-long boycott against the site.

There were demands for the #ADayOffTwitch action .

There were many demands for #ADayOffTwitch. Participants wanted to be able to control raids coming in and asked Twitch for age restrictions, email signup limits, and a timeline to when comprehensive anti-harassment tools would be implemented. The platform took legal action soon after against two people who were involved in hate raids using thousands of bot accounts.

Twitch confirmed that today's announcement addresses one of these requests. However, in an email to TechCrunch Twitch stated that it had been working on phone-verified chat for years before hate attacks became common. These additions were inspired by community feedback from Users Voice and its Ambassadors discord. Twitch stated in a post that other channel-level tools for banning evasion will be available soon. It noted that streamers have the ability to accept raids only from their friends, colleagues, and channels they follow. It is possible that Twitch could give bad actors more information about the plans and methods of evading it by not making public its timelines.

These settings can be accessed by creators by going to Dashboard, Settings - Moderation. Moderators can access these settings by clicking "Manage Moderation Settings" within Chat.

These features are surely to be met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from both creators and viewers. We all hope that these features will help aid in the fight against hate raids against streamers on Twitch.