Twitch is now starting to review subscription refunds and monitor s suspected of abusing the system. The small yet impactful change to its refund policy hopes to combat serial refunders, who subscribe to get a shoutout from the streamer and then file a refund to get their money back. s who are caught abusing the system will incur a temporary or permanent Twitch ban.
Twitch noted that this change is being implemented to protect Twitch streamers from chargebacks, and also allow for "legitimate refunds to be handled quickly for those in your community who need them." This change will only affect purchases made through Twitch and won't cover donations and other payments through services like Streamlabs.
Hey creators! Thanks to your , we have revamped our refund process to better prevent misuse. This will help us protect your revenue while allowing legitimate refunds to be handled quickly for those in your community who need them. 📚: https://t.co/NrL5JK3ZVxSeptember 13, 2021
Monitoring s and punishing serial refunders could make a big difference in protecting streamers—and Twitch, of course—from losing money. It's also a step in the right direction to regaining trust of content creators, many of whom recently took part in #ADayOffTwitch protest demanding more effective for marginalized streamers.
The boycott was kicked off by a new wave of filed lawsuits against two hate raiders who abused the Raid feature to harm other s. The hate raiders' identities are not currently known but both are believed to reside in Europe and have evaded Twitch bans "by creating new, alternate Twitch s, and continually altering their self-described 'hate raid code' to avoid detection and suspension by Twitch."
