Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) subsidiary Twitch is taking on bots. Twitch, which is a live streaming platform, is suing seven bot makers. In the lawsuit, it has accused the bot makers of selling bots that are used to inflate view count, follower count, and chat activity on its channels.
Matthew DiPietro, SVP of Marketing at Twitch, said in a blog post that the company is well aware that view-bots, follow-bots and chat-impersonation bots are a persistent frustration and these services have created a very real problem that has damaging effects across the entire Twitch community.
Bots are also employed sometimes by broadcasters. DiPietro said that broadcasters do this as they believe a perception of higher viewership and social activity will lead to a Twitch partnership. Bot services are sold by a few sellers, who mislead in order to profit. DiPietro said Twitch is very serious about these issues.
DiPietro noted in the blog that the company already employs two layers to fight back against bots. With the legal action, the company is now adding a third layer of protection. DiPietro though added in his blog post that the best way to stop bot sellers is by not buying their services.
