B.C. man charged in alleged ‘spambot’ attack on video streaming platform Twitch

COQUITLAM, B.C. – A British Columbia man has been charged with mischief after a U.S.-based social media platform was allegedly flooded with thousands of spam messages, effectively shutting down many of its channels.

Brandan Lukus Apple of Coquitlam was charged Dec. 1 with one count of mischief to computer data after the alleged cyberattack.

The 20-year-old man is also the subject of a B.C. Supreme Court civil lawsuit filed last April by Twitch Interactive Inc. that alleges he was behind an attack by so-called spambots last year, where unsolicited messages flooded more than a thousand of its channels, disabling the company's chat feature.

The Twitch website says the company is the world’s leading social video service using members to stream video games to 100 million viewers who can take part in game culture through real-time chats and discussions.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge separately ordered Apple in April to refrain from creating, selling or promoting any other bots or robots aimed at harming the company's websites.

Apple didn't respond to a request for comment and a statement of defence has not been filed in the civil suit.

None of the charges have been proven in court.

Apple has been ordered to return to court in Port Coquitlam next month on the criminal charge.