yes, they have the right to extend but forcing participants and threatening them that their stakes will be forfeited is a huge red flag.
Have they threatened bounty hunters already? Can you give a link to a post where they said they will remove stakes if a hunter refuses to continue promoting.
Original bounty period had increased from 4 weeks to 16. That is a lot. I remember they had a discussion about continuing bounty for more 4 weeks. And now they quickly decided to add more 8 weeks. Seems suspicious.
They must understand that many bounty hunters do not like a very long campaign period especially those in the signature, they joined the campaign because they thought it will only last 4 months but now 16 months and if you leave no stakes , imagine from 4 weeks to 16 weeks, they must respect bounty hunters now many cast suspicion on their campaign, I have this feeling that they do not want to give bounty hunters their rewards.
I’ve asked admin in bounty telegram group, he did not say anything about loosing stakes if leaves campaign after week 8 (after extension). Plus they did not promise to distribute reward immediately - so adding more weeks to bounty period is a bad indicator, but no one has died because of that. And no one forces anyone to participate.