diff --git a/helpers/twitch_utils.py b/helpers/twitch_utils.py
index 0079e70..0e1efac 100644
--- a/helpers/twitch_utils.py
+++ b/helpers/twitch_utils.py
@@ -19,7 +19,10 @@ def __init__(self, config: TCNConfig, twitch: Twitch):
         self.blacklisted_channelnames = self.config.blacklisted_channelnames
 
     async def init_primary_user(self, username: str, users: dict):
-        primary_user = await self.get_user_by_name(username)
+        if username.strip() in self.blacklisted_channelnames:
+            return
+
+        primary_user = await self.get_user_by_name(username.strip())
         if not primary_user:
             return
 
@@ -60,9 +63,9 @@ async def find_connections_from_videos(self, videos: list[Video],
             if user.size >= self.config.max_children:
                 user.color = 'red'
                 break
-            if names := re.findall('(@\w+)', v.title):
+            if names := re.findall(r'(@\w+)', v.title):
                 for name in names:
-                    n = name.replace("@", "").lower()
+                    n = name.replace("@", "").lower().strip()
                     if not (4 <= len(n) <= 25) or n in self.blacklisted_channelnames:
                         continue
                     if n not in users:
@@ -72,7 +75,7 @@ async def find_connections_from_videos(self, videos: list[Video],
                             user.add_child(child)
                             child.add_child(user)  # Bidirectional enforcement
                             users[child.name] = child
-                    elif n not in [x.name for x in user.children]:
+                    elif n not in [x.name.strip() for x in user.children]:
                         user.add_child(users[n])
                         if user not in users[n].children:  # Bidirectional enforcement
                             users[n].add_child(user)  # Bidirectional enforcement
diff --git a/main.py b/main.py
index 3105035..415e2a8 100644
--- a/main.py
+++ b/main.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ async def twitch_run():
                 await asyncio.gather(*chunked_users)
     else:
         for primary_username in config.primary_channelnames:
-            await twitch_utils.init_primary_user(primary_username, users)
+            await twitch_utils.init_primary_user(username=primary_username, users=users)
 
     if len(users) == 0:
         logger.error("No valid primary channels were found. Please reconfigure the primary_channel(s)")
@@ -66,17 +66,17 @@ async def twitch_run():
 
     # Loop 'recursively' until we hit a limit
     while not all_done(users, depth):
-        non_processed_users = list([_u for _u in list(users) if not users[_u].processed])
+        non_processed_users = list([_u.strip() for _u in list(users) if not users[_u.strip()].processed])
         if config.concurrency and len(non_processed_users) > 1:
             chunks = list(chunkify(non_processed_users, config.max_concurrency))
             for chunk in chunks:
                 if chunk:
-                    chunked_users = [twitch_utils.scan_user(user=users[_u], users=users)
+                    chunked_users = [twitch_utils.scan_user(user=users[_u.strip()], users=users)
                                      for _u in chunk]
                     await asyncio.gather(*chunked_users)
         else:
             for user in non_processed_users:
-                await twitch_utils.scan_user(user=users[user], users=users)
+                await twitch_utils.scan_user(user=users[user.strip()], users=users)
         depth += 1
         progress_time = "{:.2f}".format(time_since(start_time=start_time))
         logger.info(f"At depth level {depth} with {len(users)} users. {progress_time}s...")