Twitch is going after Pokémon Go cheaters

Twitch will prohibit Pokémon Go players who use unofficial software, like bot programs and GPS spoofs, from streaming on the platform. Beginning today, Aug. 8, users who broadcast Pokémon Go with the help of cheats will "receive a strike on their account," as detailed in a Twitch blog post.

This could make it a lot harder for players to stream their Pokémon Go adventures, considering the game requires you to actually get up and go outside to play. That’s not the easiest thing to broadcast over Twitch, leading dedicated streamers to find workarounds that allowed them to manipulate their phone’s location without actually moving around.

In fact, there are several Pokémon Go players broadcasting their journeys right now from the comfort of their own homes. These streams are in violation of Twitch’s Terms of Service, as stated in the post; according to those guidelines, these players could be looking at termination or suspension of their accounts for blatant use of cheats.

The zero-tolerance policy toward cheaters was reiterated in a recent statement issued by Twitch, specifically targeting streamers of online multiplayer games. When Valve told Steam users that gambling businesses based on games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are prohibited by the platform’s rules of conduct, Twitch followed suit and warned CS:GO broadcasters that streaming their weapon skins bets was against its rules, too.

Both betting in CS:GO and the use of bots and spoofs in Pokémon Go have proven controversial in recent weeks. Pokémon Go developer Niantic has attempted to crack down on automated leveling and location spoofing programs, while Valve is sending cease-and-desist notices to popular gambling communities. Both moves have been met with varying degrees of success.