Twitch Implements New Account Verification Options to Combat Hate Raids

By Tanner Dedmon

Following weeks of back-and-forth conversations between Twitch and its streaming community, the platform announced this week that it's implementing new verification options for content creators' accounts. These new options now allow streamers to require that viewers have verified emails as well as verified phone numbers before they're able to participate in chats. The goal with this change is to crack down on harassment, offensive messages, and other actions that have amounted to numerous "hate raids" directed at marginalized content creators.

Twitch announced its updated verification options this week with a blog on the site detailing what's new. The platform said it'd be adding "adding phone-verified chat and expanding the settings for email verification" for content creators to access through their options.

"Phone verified chat gives Creators finer control over who can participate in chat, by allowing them to require some or all users to verify a phone number before chatting," Twitch said. "Together with updated, more granular email verification settings, Creators will now be able to use email and phone verification in tandem to meet their specific needs."

Under this new system, content creators can require phone and/or email verification for a variety of Twitch viewer demographics. It can be required for all accounts, people who are speaking for the first time in chat, or chatters with accounts that aren't old enough. The latter allows streamers to set require verification for accounts that aren't one day old, two days old, one week old, and so on with the goal there being that people can't just make a new account and get right to the hateful activities.

Twitch said it's spent months working on this tool, but it's not meant to be the last security feature implemented to protect content creators. The blog referenced the hate raids that have been taking place on the platform and said that preventing this kind of behavior and other harmful actions were top priorities.

"Hate and harassment of any kind is unacceptable and prohibited on Twitch, whether it's an offensive message, malicious follows, or the egregious 'hate raid' attacks that have targeted marginalized creators over the past months," Twitch said. "Curbing this type of behavior is, and will continue to be, a top priority for us."

More details on Twitch's new account verification options can be seen here.

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