Twitch has announced a series of updates to its ban system that will help long-time streamers, while enhancing the consequences for policy violations.
For many years, Twitch’s ban system has been criticized for its lack of transparency and the reasoning behind some of the suspensions issued – something that even CEO Dan Clancy admitted needed improvements.
On February 19, the Amazon-owned platform revealed some big changes to violations and acknowledged that its prior ban system “disproportionately impacted longtime streamers.”
As such, the site is now letting violations expire to prevent the number of unexpected permabans. However, it’s also taking aim at frequent offenders by ramping up the consequences.
Streamer violations will now expire on Twitch
According to Twitch, the prior system permanently counted every violation, including minor infractions, against an account – something that could result in indefinite suspensions.
“Starting today, most violations will expire and drop off of your account after a set amount of time,” the site explained. “Most violations committed tend to be low severity (such as cheating in online games) and will expire in 90 days. However, higher-severity violations (such as hateful conduct) will remain on an account longer, and will expire in 1 or 2 years.”
Twitch believes this change will “reduce the risk that streamers lose their communities and livelihoods for low severity violations.”
That said, severe violations will still result in permabans, but those indefinitely suspended for multiple violations in a short timespan will be able to appeal and apply for reinstatement after half a year.
Streamers can now track their violations in the appeals portal, providing a new level of transparency.
Twitch announces harsher penalties for top offenders
In addition to violations expiring, the site revealed escalating consequences for users who frequently partake in harmful behavior.
“If you violate within the same policy category multiple times within the violation’s expiration window (90 days, 1 year, or 2 years, depending on the violation), the length of suspension you receive for each subsequent violation will increase,” Twitch said in a blog post.
Basically, if a streamer is banned for violating a community guideline and is then banned for the same infraction before the violation expires, they’ll receive a longer ban the second time.
Twitch hopes that these changes will limit the number of permabans they hand out and streamers will be more likely to follow the rules.
These policy updates were first announced at TwitchCon 2024 and more are on the way, including a long-awaited feature that will finally tell streamers exactly why they’re banned.