Twitch is a platform for anti-Semitism and Israel hatred

The Twitch streaming platform is watched by more people at any given time than any TV news network. 21.4 billion hours of content are consumed on Twitch every year. And this also applies to the anti-Semitism that the platform increasingly broadcasts in the minds of its viewers.

If you’re older than a millennial, you’ve probably never heard of Twitch, now owned by Amazon. Three quarters of users are younger than 35 years old. Twitch started in 2011 as a platform primarily for streaming games, and today more than seven million people create Twitch content – ​​ranging from gaming to comedy and, increasingly, videos that are anti-Jewish and pro- be terror.

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

On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists and thousands of Gaza residents invaded Israel, causing the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. Less than a week later, as Israelis were still trying to identify the charred remains of innocents burned alive, the streaming platform Twitch appeared to side with . . . the terrorists. Changes to Twitch coding made it nearly impossible for Israelis to join the platform.

This was first brought to light last May by an Israeli streamer named ‘Force’, who posted on in Israel, which is crazy.”

Despite public outcry, Twitch took no action.

About a week ago, a subreddit thread also noticed the login issue. Then it snowed. One user posted: “Israel here! I just checked and was indeed banned from creating new accounts.”

Twitch denied trying to prevent users in Israel from joining the platform after October. 7. Instead, they placed a claim on X that registrations were made from Israel via email were suspended after the Hamas attack to prevent violent content from being broadcast. claimed Twitch that registers via mobile phones were still allowed.

But according to a report from Ynet, Israel’s largest media outlet, Israelis were reportedly blocked when they tried to do so register starting October 20 via both email and mobile devices – more than a year after the Hamas massacre. Discussions on Reddit by Twitch users support Ynet’s claims. Yet it was only last month that Twitch finally addressed and corrected the login blocks, following strong public outcry.

Even worse is who and what Twitch is allowed on its platform. As another Redditer posted, “They literally have streamers celebrating terrorism against Jews.”

One such streamer is Hasan Piker, who was named Anti-Semite of the Week by my organization StopAntisemitism in April – and who said in 2019 that “America deserved September 11, dude. Fk it, I’m saying it.

More recently, Piker stated that there was no evidence of mass rape or murder by Hamas last October. Although the terror group livestreamed their bloody plundering of Israel, Piker hosted streams denying or dismissing Hamas’ sexual violence, even going so far as to say, “It doesn’t matter if the rapes happened on October 7. ”

This type of content violates Twitch’s Community Guidelines, which state: “Twitch does not allow content that depicts, glorifies, encourages, or supports terrorism or violent extremist actors or actions.”

While Piker faced a temporary suspension in 2021 for using the word “cracker” to describe white people, he reportedly makes millions annually from the platform. He’s so beloved at Twitch that CEO Dan Clancy and Twitch employees celebrated the streamer’s birthday in July by singing to him live. Despite this outrage, Twitch has ignored the more than 7,000 complaints our organization sent to them about Piker’s behavior.

It’s not just Twitch users who traffic in hate, employees do it too. The company’s Trust & Safety team, for example, includes Fadzai Madzingira, who was suspended from a job at Ofcom, Britain’s independent communications regulator, for her alleged anti-Israel bias. On October 16, 2023, when Israel had not yet responded to the massacre, Madzingira reportedly accused Israel in an Instagram post of “ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians”; Still, Twitch found her worthy of a job.

What is the answer to all this? CEO Daniel Clancy must answer for Twitch’s treatment of Israeli users and resign. The way he runs Twitch – with its unethical boycott of Israel and the persistent anti-Semitic, pro-terror voices that flourish there – is deeply disturbing.

According to a Twitch spokesperson in response 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 belonging. We have clear community guidelines that prohibit these harms, and our enforcement processes ensure that we apply these policies quickly, objectively and consistently to protect all members of our community. We take that responsibility seriously and are continuously working to improve and develop our safety approach.”

Nevertheless, if Twitch does not act responsibly, Amazon must intervene. We are not optimistic.

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

Gov. Gavin Newsom, California’s attorney general and legislature should investigate Twitch’s practices, including their boycott of Israel. The platform is based in California, where strict anti-BDS laws prohibit the state from doing business with companies with policies “against . . . 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, Twitch’s Trust & Safety team needs to be overhauled. Oversight and management must take place domestically, and not, for example, in Egypt, where, according to an internal whistleblower, many staffers lived and where a Pew poll found that 95% of residents expressed negative views of Jews. Hiring managers with deep-seated prejudices like Madzingira needs to be reconsidered.

There must be consequences for Twitch’s outrageous anti-Israel actions and proclamation of anti-Semitism. American society cannot thrive if our young generation is streamed to hate.

Liora Rez is the founder and executive director of Stop Anti-Semitism.