Twitch updated its rules for when streamers who have violated Community Guidelines can appeal, with a way for even perma-banned streamers to get reinstated on the platform. On Oct. 31, the livestreaming platform published an update and shared it via the official Twitch Support account on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying that the appeals process “shouldn’t be a mystery.”
Per these rules, there are two appeal types: Basically one for folks who want to dispute a Community Guideline violation, and one for folks who have served at least six months of suspension time and want to be reinstated. (Copyright and DMCA takedowns are handled separately.)
Twitch users who believe they haven’t violated Community Guidelines or that it was enforced “against your account incorrectly” can appeal, “regardless of the nature of the violation.” Twitch has historically had an appeals process, and these updated guidelines aim to clarify the process for streamers.
The major update is that banned streamers can apply to come back to the platform: Those who have been indefinitely suspended, who have served it for six months, can “submit a request for reinstatement.” Appeals can be submitted through a portal, and are reviewed by Twitch’s Safety Operations team. That said, perma-banned streamers who have been suspended for “high-severity harms” which Twitch lists as “those involving violence, threats, and other serious and/or illegal activity” can’t apply for reinstatement.
Twitch has struggled with moderation and harassment issues in the past few years, releasing features and tools to combat hate raids. And while the livestreaming platform has also banned a number of prominent streamers — notably Dr. Disrespect in 2020 — Twitch has historically kept its reasons for bans close to the chest.
While at TwitchCon, Polygon asked Angela Hession, VP of customer trust, about giving banned streamers a second chance. “Banning people in general is difficult because bad actors will always find a way to get back on the service,” she said. “But trying to be more prosocial and leaning into education… that’s something, if you look at all the work, we’re doing now more with education our expectations of what that means on our service. We do Creator Camps, to give people more clarity on behaviors. I think more of that education piece, and leaning into ‘everyone makes a mistake.’”
She added that streamers could check out the Twitch’s Appeals portal to see “where your strikes are” and where they can appeal. She also stressed the value in giving people a second chance, under specific circumstances.
“Right now we do offer remorse appeals. People can go in and say that they acknowledge they made a mistake and here’s what they’ve done, and if it’s an egregious harm — that’s a little bit different,” she told Polygon, during TwitchCon. “But I think we have to recognize, at the end of the day, humans make mistakes and if it’s not an egregious harm, if it is a low harm, and they do acknowledge basically what they’ve done, we want to give them the opportunity to appeal and come back on the service, especially if this is their community.”