Hello all
A few friends and I are working on an application/extension to combat the issue of view and follow bots. I think I’ve found a way to prevent this, but it would require getting the bots IP address in order to determine if a large group of viewers in a given channel are from the same location.
Is there a way to get a viewers IP address from the twitch API?
There are other ways of solving this issue I am tossing around but I am trying to explore this option first.
There is no way to get any users IP, as that would violate privacy. Twitch has a process on how to handle botting on their help page. Best is just to follow their process, and report them.
https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/how-to-handle-view-follow-bots
It’s not possible to get viewers IP Addresses from the Twitch API.
it would be a gross leak of private data and breech of GDPR most likely
Additionally: Twitch itself are working on measures, there is nothing you need or should be doing.
Why should we not be doing anything about it? Is it a violation of community guidelines to find solutions? Not necessarily in this way, but at all?
Everything you should do is covered in the already linked help document
https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/how-to-handle-view-follow-bots?language=en_US
You shouldn’t be doing thing else other than whats in that guide.
You lack the ability to collect the needed information as you don’t control Twitch’s servers, and the ability to block people you think are view botters from watching the stream or affecting Twitch’s view count.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Follow bots don’t even need to view the channel to follow it, so they are impossible for anyone but Twitch to track at all.
View bots can view the stream and count as a viewer without loading any extensions or 3rd party content so again you as a broadcaster would have no way to track them.
And even if you did want to use an extension in some way to do what you’re suggesting, an IP address comes under personal information in the GDPR so if you used a Twitch Extension to collect that without the users consent then you as a developer, and potentially your Twitch channel, would be legally liable for that GDPR violation, and potential breach of Twitch’s Developer Agreement and ToS yourself.
I meant no disrespect in asking my questions. I simply was seeking answers and wanted to know if it was possible.
Now that I am aware of the situation I will be on my way.
There’s no need to become so cavalier about this.
This is why I was asking!
I thought there may be some issue regarding privacy but I wasn’t sure. I thought Twitch might offer data that could make my solution possible.
Thank you for clearing this up in a professional manner.
No “cavalier” was intended, you just need to be aware of the privacy implications and the fact you cannot collect the data you need to collect, nor can you apply any effect on Twitch to “fix” the problem.
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