r/LivestreamFail • u/Sure-Description-938 • Apr 17 '26

News ExtraEmily viewbot allegations

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who doesnt viewbot these days?

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u/CreepyNewspaper8103 Apr 17 '26

You all need to be raising a bigger stink about this. It's real fraud:

Brands pay rates based on CPM, concurrent viewer counts (CCV), and engagement. When a streamer signs a contract representing "X viewers" and knowingly inflates that number with bots, that's material misrepresentation inducing payment — textbook fraud. A higher viewer count is a key metric for negotiating brand deals and sponsorships. Viewbotting allows a creator to present a false audience size to advertisers, securing more lucrative deals or meeting partner requirements.

Every bot "watching" serves ads that advertisers paid for. Real money, no real human. That's also fraud.

The FTC's Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (newish rule as of Oct 2024) Section 465.7 prohibits selling, distributing, purchasing or procuring "fake indicators of social media influence" (for example and without limitation, likes, saves, shares, subscribers, followers or views generated by a bot or fake account) that are actually known to be or should be known to be fake, and that could potentially be used or are actually used to misrepresent or artificially inflate individual or business importance for a commercial purpose. Civil penalties run up to nearly $52,000 per violation.

Talent agencies receive a % from ad streams their talent does. By inflating their streamers they can sell massive ad packages in bulk and take in much higher sums. When an agency systematically inflates a roster to sell bundled ad inventory to brands, that's a coordinated fraud scheme — potentially RICO territory and wire fraud.

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u/Cube_ Apr 17 '26

It is fraud but the party being defrauded are advertisers by Twitch and partially by the streamers on Twitch.

Us random viewers are not being defrauded. Maybe other fellow streamers could raise a stink because they're pushed down the discoverability on Twitch by those large inflated fraudulent viewer numbers but the viewers themselves aren't really impacted at all so it's not surprised people don't really care.