Improving the Reporter Experience

This year, we’ve worked hard to make Twitch safer while also finding ways to be clearer with you about our policies and the way we enforce our rules. We’ve greatly appreciated all of your feedback and heard that you want to better understand what happens when you file a report. Our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines set expectations for behavior on Twitch, and user reports are an essential tool in upholding these standards and combating harm. In April, we took the first step in creating a reporter feedback system by sending a confirmation email when a report is filed. Beginning today, we will also start sending email notifications when we’ve taken action on your report.

This new notification is a part of our ongoing push to improve the report flow for community members, and we will continue to iterate on this experience. For now, you will only receive a notification if the enforcement action we take matches the report reason you provided (e.g. you reported spam, and the account you reported was suspended for spam). This is to ensure we are providing relevant updates to reporters without violating user privacy or facilitating abuse of the user report feature, such as through mass or spam reporting. This means that, in some cases, reports made in good faith will not receive feedback. Our product team is working on ways to improve this experience and expand the availability of these notifications but we will only do so when we have a solution that reduces those risks. 

Other reasons you may not receive a notification include if:

• No action was taken; or 
• The report relates to alleged criminal behavior.

In the future we plan to expand the notifications we send, including in cases where we did not take action. However, we will not send notifications when alleged criminal behavior is involved so as not to impede law enforcement’s ability to investigate. Please know that even if you do not receive a notification, each report you submit will be sent to a member of our Safety team for review. We’ve made several improvements to our operations over the last year, such as expanding the size of our Safety review team, which have helped us reduce median report response time by 96%. Review time for any given report is dependent on a number of factors including the severity of the report, the availability of evidence, and the size of the report queue and we will continue scaling up our operations to ensure reports are reviewed in a timely and consistent manner.   

Filing reports is a crucial part of maintaining the safety and trust of our community, and adding this notification is the next step in our ongoing initiative to provide greater clarity to the community about the reporting process. We will continue to iterate, and we’ll release new features as they become available to improve the reporter experience by providing different types of feedback. We’ll be sure to update you as these improvements are made and will be upfront about what we’re doing and why.   

Please visit our Help Center if you have questions about how to file a report or reporting best practices, or check out the FAQ below. 

Thank you for your support in making Twitch a safer place.

FAQ

Does this apply to all reports or just those filed after today?

This notification will be available for reports that are investigated from today onward and meet the criteria noted above. It will not be sent retroactively. 

I filed a report and the account I reported was suspended, why didn’t I receive a notification?

One reason you might not be notified is that the report reason you selected did not match the enforcement reason ultimately applied by our moderation team (i.e. you reported an account for harm, but the violation found was spam). We are working to close this gap in the future as we recognize that depending on the situation, there may be more than one report reason that feels applicable. Because all of our reports are reviewed by a human moderator, even if you selected a different reason, an enforcement action can still be taken. This means even if you don’t receive a notification your report still helps make Twitch a safer place. If you’re unsure what makes a good report you can read up on our best practices for reporting.

If I received a notification does that mean that the account I reported was suspended?

The action taken will depend on a number of factors and can range from a warning to an indefinite suspension. 

Why aren’t you sending a notification if no action was taken?

Sending additional types of notifications requires incremental product work, and our team is actively investigating ways to close the loop. What we’ve announced today is the next step, not the final step, towards improving the user experience, and we wanted to start providing more reporter feedback as soon as possible. 

I filed a report but did not receive a confirmation it was received. What should I do?

The notification should be sent to the email address linked to the Twitch account you were logged into when you filed the report. As a first step, check your spam filter to ensure it wasn’t inadvertently marked as spam. If you’re still not seeing it please contact Twitch Support. 

Will you eventually share details around the enforcement action with the person who filed the report?

To protect the privacy of those involved we do not have plans to share details about specific enforcements. 

Will I be notified if an appeal results in the suspension being overturned?

If an enforcement is successfully appealed you will not receive notice so as to protect the privacy of individuals involved.