Twitch explains how bots are to blame for restricted browsers

Twitch has been at war with bots on the platform, and, in an effort to find a solution to millions of bots being created en masse, Twitch-compatible browsers have been restricted.

Bots have always been an issue on twitch. From view bots to follower bots, there are a ton of ways that people use and sell these bots to give Twitch channels an artificial boost, or to bombard a chat with users.

Now, someone managed to create 4 million bots in less than 24 hours. Twitch has been working behind the scenes to try and figure out how someone made so many bots in such a short time.

In Twitch’s ongoing efforts to combat these bots, only Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge are compatible with Twitch for the near future.

Twitch restricts browser access to fight off bots

While there are a ton of browsers out there, it’s safe to say that Firefox, Chrome, and Edge are the most popular when it comes to PCs. With alternatives like Safari and Opera out there, it can be hard to police so many different browsers.

Twitch’s Chief Product Officer Tom Verrilli explained some of the reasoning behind what’s going on at Twitch, and why users’ options when it comes to browser choice have been so heavily restricted.

There are organized groups trying to create bot-nets – bots that end up getting used for Hate-Raids. There was one such mob very active recently.https://t.co/zK8YTRjNl1

— Tom Verrilli (@tdrobbo) September 29, 2022

Verrilli confirms that issues with Twitch login isn’t about ad blockers like many have been speculating. He revealed that there are entire groups organizing “Hate-Raids” and using these bots for malicious purposes.

At the end of the thread explaining the situation and why the list of Twitch-compatible browsers had to be trimmed down, Verrilli had this to say:

“Folks need to use a browser not of their preference today to stop tomorrow’s Hate Raid.”

While this is inconvenient for Twitch users who regularly use a browser other than one of the big three, it’s also been made clear that these restrictions are a necessary step toward figuring out how these bots are being created so quickly.

We’re patching browsers in real time. If you can log in it’s a good sign 😉

— Tom Verrilli (@tdrobbo) September 29, 2022

And, as Verrilli went on to confirm, browsers are being patched in real-time. Twitch is working on getting every previously supported browser up and running as soon as possible.