Twitch platforms anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel

The Twitch streaming platform at all times is a work in progress SEEN by more people than any TV news network. Annually, 21.4 billion hours of content are consumed on Twitch. And that includes the anti-Semitism that the platform is increasingly feeding into the heads of viewers.

If you’re older than a millennial, you probably haven’t heard of Twitch, now owned by Amazon. Three quarters of users are under 35 years old. Twitch began in 2011 as a platform primarily for streaming games, and today more than 7 million people create Twitch content – from gaming to comedy and, increasingly, anti-Jewish and pro-terrorism videos.

It is a powerful and seemingly dangerous platform to reach young minds.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists and thousands of Gazans invaded Israel, carrying out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Less than a week later, while the Israelis were still trying to identify the charred remains of the innocents burned alive, the streaming platform Twitch appeared to be on the side. . . the terrorists. Changes to Twitch’s coding have made it nearly impossible for Israelis to become members of the platform.

This was first brought to light last May by an Israeli streamer called “Force”, who POSTED on X, “I discovered about a month ago that MANY of my longtime viewers couldn’t join Twitch because they’re in Israel, which is crazy.”

Despite public outcry, Twitch took no action.

About a week ago, a subreddit thread also noticed the signup issue. Then he made a snowball. One user posted: “Israelis here!, just checked and indeed found each other forbidden from creating new accounts.”

Twitch has denied that it tried to prevent users from Israel from joining the platform after October. 7. Instead, they POSTED a claim on X that registers from Israel by e-mail were suspended following the Hamas attack to prevent the dissemination of violent content. claimed Twitch which is registered via mobile devices were still allowed.

But according to a report from Ynet, Israel’s largest media outlet, the Israelis were blocked when they tried to registration through both email and mobile devices starting October 20 — more than a year after the Hamas massacre. Twitch user Reddit threads support Ynet’s claims. However, it was only last month that Twitch resolved and fixed the sign-up blocks after a strong public outcry.

Worse still is the who and what of Twitch allows on its platform. Like another Redditer POSTED“They literally have streamers celebrating terrorism against Jews.”

One such streamer is Hasan Piker, who my organization StopAntisemitism appointed Our Antisemite of the Week in April — and who in 2019 said that “America deserved 9/11, man. Hell, I say it.”

More recently, Piker declared there was no evidence of rape or mass murder by Hamas last October. Even as the terrorist group live-streamed its bloody looting of Israel, Piker hosted courses where he denied or dismissed Sexual violence from Hamas, going so far as to say, “It doesn’t matter if the rapes happened on October 7.”

This type of content violates the Twitch community guidelineswhich states: “Twitch does not allow content that depicts, glorifies, encourages, or supports terrorism or violent extremist actors or acts.”

While Piker was facing a temporary suspension in 2021 for using the word “biscuit” to describe white people, he according to reports earn millions annually from the platform. He is so loved by Twitch, CEO Dan Clancy, and Twitch employees celebration streamer’s birthday in July by performing live. Despite this scandal, Twitch ignored the more than 7,000 complaints our organization submitted about Piker’s behavior.

It’s not just Twitch users who traffic in hate, but employees too. The company’s Trust & Safety team, for example, includes Fadzai Madzingira, who was suspend from a job at Ofcom, Britain’s independent communications regulator, because of its alleged anti-Israel bias. On October 16, 2023, when Israel was still not responding to the massacre, Madzingira allegedly accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians” in an Instagram post; yet Twitch thought her worthy of employment.

What is the answer to all this? CEO Daniel Clancy needs to own up to how Twitch treated Israeli users and resign. The way he runs Twitch — with its unethical boycott of Israel and the anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist voices that thrive there — is deeply disturbing.

According to a Twitch spokesperson responding to questions from the Post: “There is no place on Twitch for hate or harassment of any kind, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Twitch is and always will be about membership – we have clear Community Rules that prohibit these harms, and our enforcement processes ensure that we enforce these policies quickly, objectively, and consistently to protect all members of our community. We take this responsibility seriously and are constantly working to improve and evolve our approach to safety.”

However, if Twitch won’t act responsibly, Amazon should step in. We are not optimistic.

Amazon employee Alexander “Sasha” Troufanov has been held hostage in Gaza for over a year and there is no evidence that the tech giant has made anything to free him.

Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Attorney General and the Legislature should investigate Twitch’s practices, including the boycott of Israel. The platform is based in California, where it is strongly anti-BDS justices prohibit the state from doing business with companies with policies “against . . . the nation and people of Israel.” Newsom could make a real impact here; The Golden State almost certainly has agreement with Amazon Web Services.

Finally, the Twitch Trust & Safety team needs to be reviewed. Oversight and management must be located domestically, not in, say, Egypt, where many employees lived, according to an internal announcement and where a Pew poll. finder 95% of residents express negative views of Jews. Hiring deeply biased managers like Madzingira should be reconsidered.

There must be consequences for Twitch’s outrageous anti-Israel actions and promulgation of anti-Semitism. American society cannot flourish when our younger generation is indoctrinated to hate.

Liora Rez is the founder and CEO of Stop the antisemitism.