Eddie Craven has been vocal about viewbotting throughout 2026, and the Kick co-founder touched on the controversial subject again during a recent stream, stating that the platform can check the data to confirm who is abusing bots, but that it’s impossible to take action against all the channels.

Viewbotting isn’t exclusive to Kick, and every platform is plagued by bad actors wanting to monetize content with fake viewers. This includes Kick’s rival Twitch, and the Amazon-backed platform has also taken action against viewbotting. However, something that both Twitch and Kick seemingly agree on is that viewbotting can’t be eradicated completely. Eddie Craven has now revealed why he believes Kick can take action against viewbotting, as well as its limitations.

Eddie Craven says Kick will make it harder and more expensive to viewbot

In a recent Kick Talk episode, Craven was asked whether the platform can identify if a channel is viewbotting or being viewbotted. The Kick co-founder instantly replied that yes, the platform can check data to see who’s connecting to the channel to verify whether views are being inflated. He then said that there is “only so much” that can be done and explained why Kick can’t take action against every channel caught viewbotting. The Australian said if Kick were to start banning all viewbotters, then bad actors would viewbot all channels, and the platform would have no active channels.

He said that Kick could research more and only ban channels that are viewbotting “systematically”, which the platform is already doing. Craven elaborated that Kick also removes KPP for channels caught abusing bots systematically. The Kick co-founder went on to say that this also isn’t a flawless way to punish viewbotting, as bots get “smarter” once caught. Eddie used this as the basis for stating that Kick’s job is to make viewbotting more challenging and expensive for bots to run.

Eddie said that Kick can also remove monetary incentives for channels caught viewbotting, which can also make it expensive to use bots. The Kick co-founder said the platform is making progress in its actions against viewbotting and is using various signals to check if a channel is abusing bots. Craven’s words were instantly met with feedback, with many stating that Kick needs to stop paying any streamer caught viewbotting. However, some echoed what Eddie said, claiming that a blanket action could lead to innocent streamers being caught in the crossfire.

It’s worth noting that Kick co-founder Bijan Tehrani had previously revealed that the platform banned 500 channels for viewbotting and has also shared that KPP is disabled for channels abusing bots.

Image credit: Kick