Streaming star Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel believes it will be “impossible” to enforce the new rules making viewbotting illegal, even though it is meant to help streamers.
Over the years, botting has become a massive problem for streamers and content creators. Many have had their follower numbers artificially inflated as trolls try to get them banned from different platforms, given botting is against the rules.
Some, however, have used it to their advantage. They’ve boosted their follower and viewer counts so that they have a moment in the spotlight – regardless of what punishment might be dished out.
Well, as of October 21, the US Federal Trade Commission has made the practice of viewbotting illegal. As long as you knowingly view bot, that is. However, xQc believes making it work will be “impossible” really.
“Oh god, chat, that seems impossible to enforce, sorry,” he said during his October 22 stream.
“That would mean, if somebody bots the f*ck out of somebody, say a close friend, they can say I don’t why he’s doing it and when they sell their analytics to a company if it’s not proven that their s*it is inflated, they’re not technically selling a fake thing. That doesn’t do anything.”
The Twitch and KICK streamer also questioned if the “recipients” of view botting will actually get caught and punished.
“They’ve never got caught, they never will. There’s one million plausible deniability for it, it’s the name of the game,” he added. “There’s no way, if you get targeted by a view botter, that you’re getting held accountable for that.”
The FTC has also implemented another rule that will impact social media creators, as they will now have to make clear when they’re promoting a company off the back of a payment. These rules went into effect on October 21, so there is no skirting around them or a grace period.