Thanks to content monetization, you can now post videos and host livestreams on social media to earn money. You could even exceed the salary for the average nine-to-five jobs if you get a lot of views, but you might want to avoid inflating your views fraudulently if you want to avoid jail time.

Chinese Streamer Arrested for Inflating Views

There are a lot of ways to go about increasing your viewer count such as ads and other forms of promotions, as well as adhering to basic practices like going with trends. Of course, you can also try and inflate your views using fraudulent methods, but that is not recommended.

The Chinese creator surnamed Wang, serves as a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to try this method. In order to get more views than those acquired organically, the creator operated 4,600 smartphones, as reported by Interesting Engineering.

With this technique, he increased his social media engagement which included views, comments, and shares. He used specialized cloud software to control all the devices, as well as VPN services and other network equipment like routers and switches. 

After setting up everything he needed, all he had to do was control all the phones through a single computer, and all of them would flood a live-streaming target, particularly his. It's unclear how the authorities managed to find his operation.

Before getting caught, the man managed to make three million yuans, which is equivalent to $415,000 in less than four months, which is impressive if not for the fact that it was illegal and he was cheating the system.

Zhejiang province authorities have already arrested Wang and put him in jail. He was also issued a 50,000 yuan fine and will have to serve 15 months in prison for the "crime of illegal business operations."

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What Are Click Farms?

Creators don't need to operate an entire click farm themselves the way Wang did. In fact, there are still a lot of services where creators can buy "followers" that will automatically view, like, comment, and share their posts and livestreams. 

These bot users can be used for many illegal practices like click fraud ad fraud, and the most common, inflating social media engagement. Even if the authorities never find out that you're using them, social media moderators might.

Once the platform flags your account for inflating views and other forms of engagement, you will immediately be demonetized and even banned. That means that everything you worked hard for, even the organic views, will be for nothing.

It can also prevent you from creating another account even if you have the will and patience to start over. To make things simple, just don't participate in any engagement-inflating practices, whether it's by your hand or with the help of outside services.

There are many ways you can grow your account without resorting to illegal ways such as paid promotions, collaborations, and genuine creativity. It might take a while longer, but you won't be breaking any rules that could lead to you losing your account. 

Related: Dead Internet Theory: Are Social Media Mostly Populated by Bots Now?