Why is my blocklist not working? - Chat

As a part of our moderation offerings, Stream Chat includes a blocklist feature that will flag or block messages that include a blocklisted word. By default, we provide an extensive list of over 1,000 profanities. Uploading a custom blocklist of terms is also supported. 

If messages that contain blocklisted words aren't getting blocked, there are a few things to check to ensure the blocklist is properly activated and the user who is sending these messages is assigned the appropriate role. 

1. Turn on Blocklist for Channel Type

For each channel type, a blocklist can be toggled on/off. Different blocklists can be applied to different channel types as well. In your dashboard, select "Channel Types" in the navigation on the left hand side of the page, select the relavent channel type (messaging, livestream, etc...) and scroll until you see the "blocklist" section. Here, you can toggle the blocklist on/off, select the desired list, and select whether you want to "flag" or "block" the message. Note that if you select "flag", the message will still be sent - but it will appear in your moderation dashboard to review and you can delete it if you wish.  

2. User Role

Permissions for user roles and channel roles have a certain set of permissions depending on the role. For example in the "messaging" channel type, the "User" roles and "Channel Member" roles have the skip-message-moderation permission disabled by default. However, "admin" roles can have this permission enabled and therefore can send messages containing blocklisted words. Look at the role associated with the user who sent the blocklisted message, and check the Permissions section in the dashboard to see if the message senders role has this permission enabled or not. 

3. Permission Checks Disabled

If the setting is already turned on, applications will have a "Disable Permission Checks" slider in the "Chat Overview" section of the dashboard. If the setting is disabled, it won't appear in the dashboard at all. If this slider is turned on, any words on the blocklist will not be blocked. For most applications, this setting is disabled by default. 
It is rarely recommended to enable this setting, and it can only be turned on through an API call

Feel free to get in touch with support if none of these troubleshooting tips have solved your issue.