Kick bans waves of bots as viewers accuse streamers of viewbotting
Kick/Unsplash/joshuakettleKick has finally taken action against bots artificially inflating streamers’ viewer numbers after months of concerns.
Streaming platform Kick has emerged as a true competitor to Twitch, offering content creators a significantly higher sub-split and even signing some of the biggest streamers such as xQc and Amouranth.
While Kick has had its share of controversy in regards to the content allowed on the platform, another issue the site has experienced is viewbotting with many streamers appearing to have more viewers than they really do.
For instance, streamer N3on was recently accused of using bots to inflate his viewer count after numerous accounts to a similar name spammed his chat with a Discord link.
He’s not the only one with an apparent bot issue either. During a recent appearance on Trainwreck’s Scuffed Podcast, Kick star Adin Ross alleged he had been getting botted for five to six months and had urged the site to take action.
Kick announces massive bot ban wave amid viewbotting accusations
On December 27, Kick confirmed that it had finally cracked down on bots and warned streamers that their follower counts could take a significant drop.
“Recently, we have removed a large number of bot accounts,” the site’s X account stated. “Any noticeable drop in your follower count is likely a result of this action. Please contact support@kick.com if you have any concerns.”
Following the announcement, some users flocked to the comments to applaud the platform, but others revealed they had ongoing issues that weren’t solved by the mass bans.
Among the series of “W” comments, some explained that they were being deliberately targeted and their accounts saw little to no change.
“I was follow botted months ago for several weeks by the same person targeting me and I brought it up multiple times to support… I have seen no change at all in my followers and would really love to see them gone,” one said.
“Help meeee remove them from my account plzzzzz I emailed you guys everytime it happened,” explained another.
We’ll have to see what the next course of action Kick takes to deal with bots and what the site has planned in 2024 as the streaming wars continue.
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