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Twitch is working on the sudden flood of new bot accounts

Twitch is working on the sudden flood of new bot accounts
Russell Kidson

Russell Kidson

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Twitch is in hot water again. The embattled streaming platform is currently facing a mass incursion of phony accounts. If Twitch doesn’t find a way to make this fake account epidemic a relic of the past, the platform may very well be in serious trouble. This isn’t necessarily the last nail in Twitch’s coffin, but the platform has already seen some of its most popular streamers express disgust over its most recent exploitation issues. 

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Dexerto reports a recent tweet by CommanderRoot outlines that in excess of 4 million accounts had shown up during only 24 hours. This seems to confirm that someone on Twitch has found a way to easily mass-produce fake bot accounts with which to flood the platform. This poses a massive issue for Twitch streamers. Traditionally, player counts are based on streamers’ engagement with their followers. 

Twitch may be embattled at the moment, but at least the company isn’t silent. In response to both an outcry from the wider Twitch community and CommanderRoot’s tweet, one of the devs at Twitch, RayApollo, has confirmed that Twitch is aware of the issue. Furthermore, he has assured the community that the platform is working in the background to try and find a solution to the issue. However, he was not able to mention any kind of plan of action, likely because the company doesn’t know what to do. Who would, though? 

Twitch bots overload

No one really knows how to combat this issue, especially when the bot creator seems to have found a vulnerability in the platform’s organization to exploit. As mentioned at the top of this article, this isn’t the only issue that Twitch has faced in recent months. Another issue that left a stain on the platform was an instance in which a user managed to scam more than $200,000 from the followers of numerous Twitch streamers under the guise of gambling. This has resulted in Twitch adjusting its policies concerning unlicensed gambling sites. 

This flood of fake accounts compounds the issues already plaguing the platform. If the company doesn’t get the issue under control soon, it may see a significant decrease in users. 

In other news, the platform has decided to remove its Twitch desktop app.

Russell Kidson

Russell Kidson

I hail from the awe-inspiring beauty of South Africa. Born and raised in Pretoria, I've always had a deep interest in local history, particularly conflicts, architecture, and our country's rich past of being a plaything for European aristocracy. 'Tis an attempt at humor. My interest in history has since translated into hours at a time researching everything from the many reasons the Titanic sank (really, it's a wonder she ever left Belfast) to why Minecraft is such a feat of human technological accomplishment. I am an avid video gamer (Sims 4 definitely counts as video gaming, I checked) and particularly enjoy playing the part of a relatively benign overlord in Minecraft. I enjoy the diverse experiences gaming offers the player. Within the space of a few hours, a player can go from having a career as an interior decorator in Sims, to training as an archer under Niruin in Skyrim. I believe video games have so much more to teach humanity about community, kindness, and loyalty, and I enjoy the opportunity to bring concepts of the like into literary pieces.

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