Twitch Improves Reporting and Appeals Process

Twitch can be a stressful place for streamers due to the relentless waves of trolls bombarding them with racist, transphobic, and ableist messages. With this, it is a good thing that the video-streaming platform has decided to make another round of upgrades within its safety tools. In this upgrade, users and streamers can expect a more intuitive reporting process and a simplified appeals portal over the next few weeks.

“Community safety is vital for interacting on Twitch, and our Community Guidelines are the foundation for community safety that establish the standards for the site,” says Twitch in its post referring to its aspiration to make the platform a safe place for everyone, leading to the improvement of its tools. “We want everyone to have a safe experience across Twitch, and we’re always working to enforce our Guidelines as consistently and fairly as we can—but at Twitch’s scale, we can’t be everywhere at once, and we also have to own that sometimes we’ll make mistakes. That’s why your support is so essential for helping us flag behavior that seems off or telling us when we made an enforcement call that doesn’t seem right. Safety is at its best when we’re all working together, and we’re always building tools so we can more easily be partners and active participants in fostering a safe Twitch.”

According to the post made by Twitch, the changes will be first noticed with the improved reporting tools that can make the reporting process more convenient for everyone, be it the streamers and viewers. Unlike before, it will come with menus, allowing the reporter to choose the type of content being reported (live content, VODs, or clips). Users will also now have access to a search function that will let them look for the specific reason for reporting content. Nonetheless, there will be a prompt requiring one to select the most relevant report reason. Twitch also noted that it is essential to include as much information and context as possible to help the investigation move faster and be more effective.

“Reports from the community are an essential part of keeping Twitch safe—not just for flagging specific incidents, but also for giving us valuable data about potential emerging trends in bad behavior,” said Angela Hession, Twitch VP of Trust & Safety. “The more accurate and detailed those reports can be, the better we can do our jobs and provide the best experience on Twitch where communities can interact safely.”

This feature will first arrive on the web next week and will be available on mobile devices soon.

On the other, the new appeals portal located at appeals.twitch.tv is promised to offer a much faster system and more transparency over the appeals process. It is one of the main sections requested by many streamers to be improved since the old process was limited to receiving an automated response and waiting for a decision of whether the appeal is accepted or rejected.

Twitch said that the appeals portal will now use tech updates to help the team address and review appeals faster. It also noted that this would simplify the process by doing two main things:

• It gives you visibility into the enforcements that are eligible for appeal.
• It shows you the status and outcome of ongoing and prior requests, respectively.

In addition, the appeals portal will show the status and outcome of ongoing and prior requests, respectively.

“Appeals that are being reviewed will show as ‘Pending,’” Hession added. “Once your appeal has been decided, it will show as either ‘Accepted’ or ‘Rejected.’ You’ll also still get an email update when your appeal is resolved, which now includes more detail on why we made our decision.”