Twitch might be shadow banning VPN users from its chat feature

Twitch has recently come under fire from a founding member, Ben Goldhaber, who took to Twitter to express his unhappiness with recent developments.

About 2 months ago, Twitch began implementing what is being dubbed the 'Purple Screen of Death' (PSoD).The PSoD is a mandatory, non-skippable 30 second interruption that is placed in ALL embeds making for a poor user experience. pic.twitter.com/Myv1ch0JJF

— Ben Goldhaber (@FishStix) January 29, 2021

The 'Purple Screen of Death' is a mandatory, non-skippable, 30-second interruption. The 'PSoD' is usually shown to users who watch Twitch streams not directly from Twitch.tv.

The #TwitchPSoD needs to be re-evaluated or outright removed. I have discovered several streamers through multi-streams on other sites, like @ajondc (a wonderful artist) when he did a multistream with @RetroMapleArt . If it weren't for embeds, I wouldn't be here for ajon's growth

— Acacia (@EdgyGamerGal) January 30, 2021

While this is a mere inconvenience to some viewers, for others, it could mean missing significant developments within the stream.

the stupid twitch purple screen is finally blocked yet again. my user experience is now again redeemed.

— awert (@_awert) January 1, 2021

A few days ago, Twitch added another barrier to embeds, adding a disruptive message for users, asking them to "get the full experience" by continuing to watch on Twitch.

Between the #TwitchPSoD and this, it clear that Twitch is doing what they can to hamstring their own embed product. But streamers, viewers, and Twitch DO benefit from embed.

— Ben Goldhaber (@FishStix) January 29, 2021

While the embeds and 'PSoD' issues may not give rise to an alarm, reports have been circulating that Twitch is supposedly shadow banning VPN users from its chat feature.

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Is Twitch shadow banning VPN users?

There are quite a few reasons why some people prefer using VPNs on Twitch. Trolls are always on the prowl trying to circumvent account bans, and some users prefer using it to get around increasingly aggressive ads.

Furthermore, VPNs add an extra layer of security while enabling many users to access Twitch from countries where it's banned.

Here's a whole reddit page full of people having the same issue as me today trying to chat with buddays during streams. If you're on Mullvad, beware - you ARE shadowbanned on Twitch chat. https://t.co/z0PlNznhnv

— uɐpʇou@ ✸ (@notdan) January 31, 2021

According to the Twitch community, VPN providers were shadow banned from chat, which resulted in people who use them being unable to send messages.

One VPN user commented:

"So, I recently noticed that none of my messages arrived in the chat of streamers. I could see the message myself, but when I checked on my phone, the message did not appear. I tried with three different VPNs, and it's the same on all of them."

Most people have claimed that using NordVPN and MullVadnetVPN automatically shadow bans people from all chat.

I think it might be they are still using IRC servers and some VPN providers, like @mullvadnet @buyvpnservice etc, have too many people coming from a single IP. If it's default-ish IRC configs, limits are around 3 per IP. If they moved off IRC disregard im dumb. lol

— uɐpʇou@ ✸ (@notdan) February 3, 2021

Users are still visibly confused as to why this has started happening all of a sudden.

However, the entire issue should be taken with a pinch of salt at this point in time. Without Twitch's official statement regarding the matter, nothing can be said for sure.

That is unbelievable. What liars

— uɐpʇou@ ✸ (@notdan) February 2, 2021

If Twitch is indeed banning the use of VPNs, many streamers who depend on sponsorship deals from these companies will lose out big time.

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The verdict

Twitch seems to be off to a rocky start in 2021. First, a founding member declares that the platform is making "poor user experience" mandatory with the embeds and PSoD, and now, rumors about a shadow ban on VPN users are circulating.

You did it, Chat!Thanks to you, we reached a record 1 trillion Minutes Watched in 2020.Tag a creator who kept you coming back to watch. pic.twitter.com/Wp8qnN03Qd

— Twitch (@Twitch) January 30, 2021

As of February 2020, the platform had three million monthly broadcasters and 15 million daily active users. The platform recently celebrated the milestone of reaching 1 trillion minutes watched in 2020.

lol... the twitch staff response.... pic.twitter.com/yCJVQJoIIb

— EscoNitz (@EscoNitz) January 29, 2021

Despite the massive surge in popularity in just a few short years, users and developers are at wit's end with Twitch's staff response, which seems to be all too generic and unhelpful for the most part.

Hopefully, the Amazon-owned company will address the VPN, embed, and PSoD issues sooner rather than later.