New US laws on view-botting will have some streamers firing up LinkedIn for the first time

You’ve probably mumbled “there’s no way this streamer has 20K viewers” to yourself at some point. And now, we might find out soon enough if that’s true thanks to new regulations announced today by the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC published a “final” ruling on purchasing AI comments and reviews for products today, strictly prohibiting the practice in the U.S. And while most of these new rules target reviews and testimonials for products, there’s also an interesting addition in the last section about social media indicators. “The final rule prohibits anyone from selling or buying fake indicators of social media influence, such as followers or views generated by a bot or hijacked account,” the post reads. That definitely seems to implicate stream viewership numbers as companies and esports organizations often tout their viewership numbers to media companies and prospective investors alike. And it could mean any U.S. streamers who are view-botting will need to clean up their act quickly.

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