Twitch Adds Phone-Verified Chat and Expands Email Authentication Settings
Twitch has announced that they would add new channel-level security tools to prevent abuse on the network. Creators and moderators can now enable verified chat, which requires chatters to verify their phone number or email address before sending messages.
Users can toggle these settings to allow verified chat. Until the channel opts in, these settings will be off by default. Settings are also in place to ensure that VIPs, subscribers, and moderators avoid verification. In contrast to two-factor authentication, users need to validate their phone or email once they authenticate across all channels.
Key takeaways:
- Twitch allows users to link up to five accounts to the same phone number. Suppose one of those accounts is banned from a channel. In that case, all other confirmed identities using that phone number or email address will be prohibited as well.
- The idea is to prevent anyone from using the same phone number or email address to create several hate profiles. The streamer would only block someone once instead of five times.
- While using a different phone number, such as a Google Voice account, is possible. It adds another layer of complexity for bad actors.
Twitch Has Been Hacked, Disclosing Future Product Plans
Twitch, Amazon’s video streaming service, was hacked, exposing payment information for content creators as well as an unreleased product from Amazon Game Studios.
In a post to the anonymous message board platform 4chan, the hacker stated they exposed the information to “encourage greater disruption and competition” in the online video streaming business.
Key takeaways:
- Twitch confirmed the hack but didn’t elaborate on the scope of the attack or the information stolen.
- According to the 4chan post, the hacker took over 125 gigabytes of data in the incident.
- According to reports, the material includes Twitch’s source code and information about Amazon Game Studio’s plans to build an online store for computer games to compete with industry leader Steam.