‘Twitch’ Lawsuit; Users Profit From Fake Views

“Twitch” is one of the largest video streaming sites in the world and is primarily used by gamers. Users can potentially earn hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars if their view count goes high enough, which is why some are resorting to using bots. Twitch has had enough and has decided to file a lawsuit against the companies making these bots.

On a blog post, “Twitch” senior vice-president of marketing Matthew DiPietro explained why they decided to finally used legal options for something that afflicts so many video streaming sites.

“We at Twitch are well aware that view-bots, follow-bots, and chat-impersonation bots are a persistent frustration,” DiPietro wrote. “Exploited by a small minority, these services have created a very real problem that has damaging effects across our entire community.”

Tech Times outlines some of the biggest problems caused by bots that inflate views and invade chat boxes. For starters, it robs those who are making great content of the opportunity to keep up since the views that cheaters are getting are artificial. More than that, those using bots to inflate their view count have empty achievements since they don’t get actual followers that can provide them with long-term success.

To those who are only watching “Twitch” users stream videos and play games, bots might not seem like such a big deal and suing bot sellers might seem like an overreaction. However, streamers and the video streaming website are incredibly concerned because of the prospect of losing profit.

Users who work hard to produce great content for their viewers suffer a loss of revenue and “Twitch” is at risk of losing viewership integrity because bots are essentially empty accounts. Even though the bots contribute to their number of viewers, once they disappear, the loss would be significantly more noticeable than if they were real accounts.