Twitch Harassment in Whispers and Chat: Block and Report

The same person keeps sliding into your whispers, or turning up in chat with a new name every time you ban the last one. Maybe it happens live in front of your viewers, or someone follows you from channel to channel. It wears you down, and it is hard to think clearly while it is happening.

The short answer: Twitch gives every user tools to cut contact straight away, and a report route that works best when you send one clear, detailed report. This guide follows Twitch's own help and safety pages. It shows what each tool does, which ones only a streamer or moderator can use, how to write the report, and what to do when the person keeps coming back on new accounts. We cannot promise that Twitch will act on any report. One wrong step can cost you the account, so know what you are doing before you start.

Last checked: 29 October 2026.

#Quick Answer: How Do You Stop Someone Harassing You on Twitch?

Cut contact first, then report. Twitch's How to Manage Harassment in Chat page says any user can ignore someone, block them, turn on chat filters and file a user report. Blocking stops them whispering you, following you and watching your livestreams. The Block Whispers from Strangers setting stops people with no link to you from starting whisper conversations. Twitch's Filing a Report page then asks for one detailed report, sent from the actual whisper or chat message, with the date, time and time zone.

#Which Twitch Tool Does What

#Who Counts as a Stranger for Whispers?

This matters, because Block Whispers from Strangers only stops strangers. Twitch's two pages word it differently. The Viewer Controls page defines a stranger as anyone who is not someone you follow, someone you subscribe to, one of your mods, one of your editors, or Twitch Staff. The harassment help page says a stranger is anyone who does not have a relationship with you or with Twitch: "you have not followed them; they are not an editor or mod in your channel; you have not whispered them previously; and they are not a partner, Twitch staff member, or Safety Ops specialist."

The practical point is the same under both wordings. If you follow the person, subscribe to them, have whispered them before or made them a mod, the stranger setting may not stop them. Block them directly. Both pages say the setting is on by default, so if you switched it off at some point, switch it back on.

#Steps for Viewers: Whispers and Other People's Chats

1. Screenshot the whispers or chat lines first, with the username, the channel and the time showing. Once you block or ignore, their messages stop showing to you.
2. Report the whisper from the whisper itself. On the web, Twitch's report page says to click the cog wheel icon at the top right of the whisper window, then Report. On mobile, tap the cog wheel icon next to the username inside the whisper screen, then Report.
3. Report a chat message by clicking the username in chat, then the three vertical dots, then Report. On mobile, tap the username in the chat column and select Report.
4. Block the account. The harassment help page says to click their username, then the three vertical dots menu, and select Block Username. In a whisper, the cog icon also has a Block option.
5. Check Block Whispers from Strangers in your Security and Privacy settings, and turn on Chat Filters from the chat settings in any channel.
6. If you only want them out of sight in someone else's channel, ignore them.

#Steps for Streamers and Moderators

If the harassment happens in your own channel, you have more tools. Twitch's harassment page describes each of these, and its Combating Targeted Attacks page says such settings sit in the Moderation Settings in Stream Manager.

• Appoint a trusted moderator so someone else can time out and ban while you stream.
• Time out or ban the account. Then report it to Twitch as well, because a channel ban only covers your channel.
• Turn on followers-only chat for 10 or 30 minutes when someone keeps creating new accounts to get past your chat ban. The help page suggests exactly this, and asks you to report the harassing conduct too.
• Require chatters to be email or phone verified, and consider the option to stop banned users from viewing your stream. The page notes banned users can still watch logged out or in an incognito window.
• Set up Shield Mode in advance so you can switch it on in one go during a raid.
• Use the Batch Reporting Tool in Mod View after the stream. The report page says banned or timed out users stay listed there for 8 hours.

#How to Write a Report Twitch Can Act On

The Filing a Report page is clear on what helps. File one detailed report rather than several generic ones. Pick the most relevant report reason, because a more severe reason than fits will not make enforcement more likely. Then fill the Tell Us More field. Twitch lists what to include if you have it:

• Date and time, including your time zone.
• A detailed description of what happened.
• The name of the channel where it happened.
• The username of the person targeted, if it is not you.
• Any other usernames you suspect the same person is using. The harassment help page asks for this when someone repeatedly harasses you or evades chat bans.

Report from the message itself where you can. The report page says you can report whispers from the channel menu, but it recommends reporting directly from the chat message or whisper so the team knows exactly which message you mean. Our guide on collecting evidence before you report harassment covers how to keep a tidy record.

#When the Same Person Keeps Coming Back on New Accounts

Twitch's harassment page says that if a harassing user keeps creating new accounts, you should report them. For repeated harassment, use the Harassment category. For someone dodging a chat ban, use Chat Ban Evasion. Note the other usernames, the channel and the time, and do the same for each new account they use. Twitch's Community Guidelines list "Creating accounts dedicated to harassment, such as through abusive usernames" as harassment.

Do not try to unmask the person yourself, and do not post what you think their real name is. The guidelines treat doxxing, sharing personally identifiable information with malicious intent, as a serious offence, and it can turn a clear case into a messy one.

#What Happens After You Report

The report page says you are offered the option to block the account, and you get an email confirming the report was received. Check spam if it does not arrive. Review time depends on things like how severe the report is, the evidence available and the size of the queue. If Twitch acts on the account for the reason you chose, you get an email saying so. You will not get that email if no action was taken, if action was taken for a different reason, if the account was already actioned, or if the report concerns alleged criminal behaviour. Twitch does not tell you what the enforcement was.

One detail in the guidelines helps you. Twitch says it may need people who feel targeted to show the behaviour was not consensual banter before it steps in, and that filing a user report or taking moderation action counts as that sign. You do not have to tell the harasser you feel harassed first. The guidelines say to do so only if it feels safe.

#What Not to Do

• Do not mass report or ask friends to pile on. Twitch says mass or repeated reporting of the same content does not speed up the investigation or make enforcement more likely.
• Do not misuse the report tool. The report page says abuse of the User Report Tool breaks the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, and accounts doing it may be suspended.
• Do not attack back in chat or on stream. The guidelines list inciting viewers to target another person as harassment, whatever the reason.
• Do not pay anyone who offers to get an account banned or to find out who is behind it. Twitch's pages describe only its own reports, and paying a stranger for this puts your money and your login at risk.

#Streamers: Can Harassment in Your Chat Get You in Trouble?

Twitch expects streamers to take the necessary steps to mitigate harassment that appears on their stream or in their chat. The guidelines say Twitch will not suspend broadcasters it finds acting in good faith, including by using AutoMod, timeouts and channel bans, to remove abuse from third parties. So using the tools above is also how you show you are dealing with it. If you were suspended over something viewers did, our guide to appealing a Twitch suspension explains that route.

#Threats, Stalking and Harassment Off Twitch

The guidelines say that if someone's behaviour makes you fear for your safety or that of your immediate family, you should report it to your local law enforcement immediately, and that you can also seek help from a lawyer or the police if the abuse rises to a legal claim or a crime. For certain severe offences committed off Twitch, the report page gives a separate email route to Twitch's Off-Service Investigation Team at OSIT@twitch.tv. Twitch says it needs verifiable evidence before acting on off-service reports, and that it will not act on reports about on-service behaviour sent there.

In Malaysia, our guides on making a police report for online harassment and on Malaysia's harassment law and the Online Safety Act cover the local side.

#What Twitch's Pages Do Not Promise

• They give no time frame for reviewing a report.
• They do not promise that a reported account will be suspended. The harassment page says some conduct may not break the rules, and suggests using the other tools as well as reporting.
• They do not say that blocking one account blocks the person's other accounts. Block and report each one.
• They do not tell you what action was taken, for privacy reasons.

#When It Is Safer to Get Expert Help

Most harassment cases can be handled with the steps above, and the official route always comes first. The risks of going it alone are plain. Reporting in a rush with no dates or usernames gives the team little to act on. Piling on reports, or picking a more severe reason than fits, does not help, and misuse of the report tool can put your own account at risk. Hitting back in public can land you on the wrong side of the same rules. And people offering paid bans or unmasking services are not part of any Twitch process.

If the harassment is long running, crosses several platforms, includes threats, or your channel is part of your income, having an experienced team organise the record and the reports is the safer choice. AwareXone does this work alongside the official routes. Our social media problem solutions page explains what we cover.

#When a Case Review Makes Sense

A review helps when you have reported and blocked and it keeps happening, when you are not sure which category fits, or when you need one clear timeline for Twitch, the police or a lawyer. SocialSafe by AwareXone is a Malaysia-based service, independent of Twitch, that helps you use the official routes. We never ask for your password or any login code, and we do not promise any outcome. See how we work on our trust page, and use Apply for Case Review at the end of this guide.

#Frequently Asked Questions