Twitch is the biggest video game streaming platform globally, but sometimes it gets some unwanted attention from view bots. The company has now confirmed that it has axed 7.5 million accounts that it believes were used by view bots instead of actual humans.
Twitch's Problem With Viewbots
The news broke on the official Twitch Support Twitter account. The company has been using "ongoing machine learning technology" to detect most of these accounts, which are now being scrubbed off Twitch.
The company follows up this statement by saying that the wave of bans will hit both view bots and follow bots. As such, Twitch streamers may notice that their average view count and/or their follower count drop as a result of the removals.
Some people noticed a change immediately, with one streamer showing their decreased follower account in the Tweet's replies.
This wave of bans should hopefully take care of any robot impostors. However, if you should notice some suspicious activity, you can report bots or people advertising the use of them through Twitch. The Twitch Help article on botting contains all the information you need about reporting bots.
Twitch's Constant Battle Against the Bots
Twitch's botting problem has been a major thorn in its side. Using bots to boost viewer or follower counts creates what the company calls "fake engagement," as many of Twitch's metrics are based on viewer and follower counts.
However, fixing the problem is a tricky business. It may seem like an obvious fix at first—just ban everyone caught with view bots in their channel. However, this plan of attack leaves the door wide open for trolls to exploit.
If Twitch began banning streamers that had view bots watching them, people could send bots to the channels of people they dislike without the streamer knowing. This would cause a lot of bans to come down on innocent streamers for an offense they didn't instigate.
As such, Twitch's best bet is to ban the bots, and anyone caught selling or distributing them. This is easier said than done, as Twitch would need to identify which viewers are robots and which are just tranquil people. However, it seems the company has hit on how to detect them via machine learning, so hopefully, the days of bots on Twitch are over.
Squashing the Robot Uprising
Twitch has always had an issue with botting, especially since it's tough to get rid of them once they arrive properly. Hopefully, Twitch's new bot detection technology will ensure all those followers and viewers in a stream are the real deal.
Unfortunately, this does mean that streamers have to rely on real human engagement to boost their metrics. However, there are still ways that streamers can make their content more appealing for human viewers, such as getting involved with other streamers.
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