Jack Doherty Responds to Twitch Viewbotting Accusations

Jack Doherty has responded to allegations of viewbotting following his Twitch wedding stream, which saw high viewership numbers alongside a notably low level of active chat participation. This unusual combination raised suspicions about the authenticity of the viewer count, leading some to speculate that the Twitch stream’s viewership had been falsely increased.

Twitch viewbotting is the practice of artificially inflating the viewer count on a stream using automated bots or fake accounts. These bots mimic real viewers, making a stream appear more popular than it actually is. While prohibited under Twitch’s terms of service, the practice has been a recurring topic of discussion, with allegations of its use by streamers of varying sizes. For example, streamer Trainwrecks previously stated that a significant number of Twitch’s top 100 streamers may be engaging in viewbotting, bringing attention to the issue within the community.

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Jack Doherty’s wedding stream, which lasted nearly five hours and featured his marriage to fellow YouTuber McKinley Richardson, attracted attention after one Twitter user pointed out the odd discrepancy between 17,000 viewers and only three active chat participants. The tweet quickly went viral, accumulating over 14 million views and 84,000 likes, amplifying the accusations of viewbotting, an issue which previously led to the banning of streamer Kevin Pereira from Twitch. Eventually, Jack Doherty replied to the tweet, clarifying that he does not use Twitch’s native chat and instead reads comments via Parti.com, which he claimed led to the low chat activity on the Twitch platform during the stream.

Jack Doherty Defends Against Viewbotting Allegations

Despite his explanation, the criticism persisted, prompting Doherty to post a follow-up video on Twitter to further address the situation and defend his actions. In the video, he responded to the viewbotting accusations, stating, “Everyone’s saying I’ve been viewbotting” and expressing frustration, adding, “I just got married today.” He once again went on to clarify that the low chat activity was due to his agreement with Parti.com, explaining, “I have a deal with Parti.com,” and noted that he encourages viewers to chat on that platform instead of Twitch. It’s also worth noting that viewbotting is not unique to Twitch, as streamer Trainwreck has acknowledged similar issues on Kick.com.

While the timeframe for streaming platforms to fully address viewbotting remains unclear, it’s worth mentioning that controversial streamer Jack Doherty was recently permanently banned from Kick. The ban followed an incident where Doherty crashed his new McLaren during a live stream on the platform. While speeding on a wet road and reading chat messages from his phone, Doherty lost control of the vehicle and collided with a guardrail.