Twitch promotes anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel

Twitch streaming platform at any time watched more people than any television news network. 21.4 billion hours of content are consumed on Twitch each year. And that includes the anti-Semitism that the platform increasingly broadcasts into viewers’ heads.

If you’re older than a millennial, you probably haven’t heard of Twitch, which is 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, ranging from games to comedy and, increasingly, anti-Jewish and propaganda videos.

It is a powerful and seemingly dangerous platform to influence 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 Israelis were still trying to identify the charred remains of innocent people burned alive, streaming platform Twitch appeared to be taking sides. . . terrorists. Changes in Twitch’s coding have made it nearly impossible for Israelis to become members of the platform.

This was first reported in May last year by Israeli streamer Force, who published on X: “About a month ago I discovered that MANY of my longtime viewers couldn’t sign up for Twitch because they were in Israel, and it’s crazy.”

Despite the public outcry, Twitch took no action.

About a week ago, a subreddit thread also noticed confusion with registration. Then it snowballed. One user wrote: “The Israeli is here!”, just checked and indeed it was prohibited from creating new accounts.”

Twitch has denied trying to stop users in Israel from joining the platform after October. 7. Instead they published statement on X that subscriptions are from Israel by email were suspended after the Hamas attack to prevent the broadcast of violent content. Twitch claimed rights who register via mobile phones were still allowed.

But according to a report by Ynet, Israel’s largest media outlet, the Israelis were reportedly blocked as they tried register through both email and mobile devices as of October 20. — more than a year after the Hamas massacre. Twitch user threads on Reddit support Ynet’s claims. However, it was only last month that Twitch finally fixed the registration block after much public outcry.

Even worse is the who and what of Twitch allows on your platform. Like another Reddit user published“They literally have banners glorifying terrorism against Jews.”

One such streamer is Hassan Picker, a member of my organization StopAntisemitism. named our Anti-Semite of the week in April – and who in 2019 said that “America deserved 9/11, man. Damn it, I’m saying it.

Most recently Piker stated there was no evidence of mass rapes or killings committed by Hamas last October. Even though the terrorist group was live-streaming its bloody plunder of Israel, Piker organized streams where is he rejected or fired Sexual abuse by Hamas, going so far as to say, “It doesn’t matter if the rapes fucking happened on October 7th.”

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

Although Piker faced temporary suspense in 2021 for using the word “burglar” to describe white people, he as reported earns millions annually on the platform. He is so beloved by Twitch that CEO Dan Clancy and the Twitch staff celebrated the streamer’s birthday in July, singing to him live. Despite this outcry, Twitch has ignored over 7,000 complaints sent to them by our organization about Piker’s behavior.

It’s not just Twitch users who engage in hate speech, but employees as well. For example, the company’s trust and safety team includes Fadzai Madzingira, who suspended from her job at Ofcom, Britain’s independent communications regulator, due to her alleged anti-Israel bias. On October 16, 2023, while Israel had yet to respond to the massacre, Madzingira allegedly accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians” on Instagram. mail; however, Twitch considered her worthy of the job.

What’s the answer to all this? CEO Daniel Clancy must account for Twitch’s treatment of Israeli users and resign. The way he runs Twitch—with his unethical boycott of Israel and continued anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist voices there—is deeply troubling.

According to a Twitch spokesperson responding to questions posed by the Post: “There is no place for hate or harassment of any kind on Twitch, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Twitch cares and always will about belonging: we have clear community guidelines that prohibit such harm, and our enforcement processes ensure that we apply these policies quickly, fairly, 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 security.”

However, if Twitch fails to act responsibly, Amazon must intervene. We are not optimistic.

Amazon employee Alexander “Sasha” Truufanov has been held hostage in the Gaza Strip for more than a year. and there is no evidence that the tech giant has made everything to free him.

Governor Gavin Newsom, the Attorney General, and the California Legislature should investigate Twitch’s actions, including its boycott of Israel. The platform is based in California, where anti-BDS is strong. lawLaws prohibit the government from doing business with companies that have an anti-. . . the nation and people of Israel.” Newsom could have a real impact here; The Golden State almost certainly has contracts with Amazon Web Services.

Finally, the Twitch Trust & Safety team needs to be updated. Oversight and management should be done in-country and not, for example, in Egypt, where many employees lived, according to an internal whistleblower, and where, according to the Pew survey, found 95% of residents express a negative attitude towards Jews. The hiring of managers with deep-rooted biases like Madzingira needs to be reconsidered.

Twitch’s outrageous anti-Israel actions and promotion of anti-Semitism must have consequences. American society cannot thrive when our younger generation is driven by hate.

Liora Rez – Founder and CEO Stop anti-Semitism.