Twitch has responded to claims that gifted subscriptions are only given to bot accounts after some streamers spotted fresh profiles getting them.
Viewbots have, for a long time, been a big talking point on Twitch. However, they’ve become an even hotter topic at the end of the summer.
In July, the Amazon-owned platform announced that there would be changes allowing them to “meaningfully improve our ability to identify viewbots, inauthentic viewership, and other potentially fake engagement.” This coincided with a 24% drop in viewership figures for Twitch as a whole and a five-year record low in August.
Additionally, some viewers claimed that gifted subscriptions had started being handed out to both accounts.
It was highlighted most intently by Quin69, who noted that at least four out of five gifted subs were going to fresh profiles with new activity history on Twitch. These accounts weren’t even following Quin’s channel.
Twitch addresses gifted subs going to ‘bots’
The streamer suggested that it was a “bug” in the code, but other streamers also noted similar activity with gifted subs going to non-followers. Some suggested it was a purposeful change from Twitch in some way.
However, Twitch has since confirmed to Dexerto that this is not the case. “We have found no evidence to suggest there is a widespread issue with gifted subs on Twitch,” a spokesperson told Dexerto.
“Twitch does not intentionally target bot accounts for gifted subs. We actively work to remove bot accounts – not reward them.”
Twitch also reaffirmed that “we continue to be committed to identifying and combatting viewbots, inauthentic viewership, and other potentially fake engagement on our platform.”
The platform’s FAQs state that they “use an algorithm to help us select gift recipients starting with eligible viewers in chat, then followers, mods, and other factors that identify members of a community.”
This algorithm “also avoids giving trolls subs,” and that work is constantly being done to ensure fans are rewarded.
