Launched for the first time in June 2011, Twitch has made miraculous progress and has become the world’s largest streaming platform in recent years. With a simple yet easy-to-follow interface, an engaging chat culture, and great perks for streamers, Twitch has attracted numerous streamers across all game titles, including CS:GO. However, recently a wave of CS:GO streamers has been “crying out” as they have been impersonated by hackers to deceive gullible viewers.
Specifically, hackers create Twitch accounts with names similar to those of famous streamers/pro players like S1mple, Shroud, or Stewie2k, and replay their old stream clips, along with promises to GA (Give Away) rewards for viewers watching the channel. Not only that, hackers will use a large number of viewer bots to push these fake streams to the top and create a sense of authenticity for viewers. Moreover, if gullible viewers click on the links commented by the (fake) channel owner in the chat and follow the instructions, their computers are almost guaranteed to get infected with malicious viruses and lose valuable skins in their inventories. Although these fake stream channels are often deleted after one to two hours, just minutes later, another fake stream channel will appear, and everything goes back to square one.
Slasher, a prominent journalist in the Esports community, exclaimed: “Impersonated streams with tens of thousands of viewbots, famous partner streams abusing the system by replaying old streams 24/7 pretending to be live, and Twitch continues to have confusing bans; things are getting worse for this streaming platform.”
This issue has been around for a long time, and the “victims” have voiced their concerns, yet Twitch merely deletes fake accounts without any comprehensive solutions.
Stewie2k: “Things are getting out of hand Twitch. Let me have the power to ban them, I’ll take care of it.”
S1mple is perhaps one of the most impersonated streamers as he is one of the best players in the world with a massive viewership, and despite many complaints, it seems that nothing has changed.
“Every day there are still many accounts impersonating me streaming, what the hell is going on Twitch? Isn’t it your responsibility to protect the viewers?” – S1mple, December 2019
S1mple: “Let’s help Twitch find some volunteers so they can delete at least one fake stream each day.”
Haci: “You accidentally cursed once on stream, and they immediately banned you after 2 minutes, while the fake streams have been appearing continuously for 5 days with no issue.”
S1mple: “5 days? I think it’s been over 5 months by now.”
This has truly become a plague on Twitch, and perhaps the platform needs to take strong and decisive measures soon before things go too far.