Feature Announcement: Shadow Ban

As chat applications grow and encounter problematic users, Stream introduces new moderation tools to address these challenges, including the shadow ban feature. This tool allows a user to continue posting content that remains invisible to others, effectively preventing undesirable content from spreading without alerting the user to their banned status. Shadow bans can be applied to individual channels or across the entire app, often leading to the offending user ceasing their behavior due to a lack of interaction. The feature is implemented by marking messages with a shadowed: true field, which remains hidden from the banned user, even if they access the API directly. Stream provides specific code snippets for applying and removing shadow bans at both the channel and app-wide levels, enhancing the safety and user experience of chat applications.