The streaming platform Twitch, at any time, is being look at by more people than any television news network. Every year, 21.4 billion hours of content are consumed on Twitch. And this includes the anti-Semitism that the platform increasingly broadcasts in the heads of viewers.

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

This is a powerful and seemingly dangerous platform for reaching 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, the streaming platform Twitch seemed to side with . . . 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 named “Force,” which job on

Despite the public outcry, Twitch took no action.

About a week ago, a subreddit thread also noticed the registration issue. Then it snowballed. One user posted: “Israelis here!, just checked and actually found themselves forbidden to create new accounts.

Twitch has denied trying to block users in Israel from joining the platform after October. 7. Instead, they job a claim about X that the inscriptions come from Israel by email were suspended following the Hamas attack to prevent the broadcast of violent content. Twitch claimed who registers via mobile phone devices were still allowed.

But according to a report from Ynet, Israel’s largest media outlet, Israelis were blocked while trying to register via both email and mobile devices starting October 20 – 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 resolved and fixed registration blocks after significant public outrage.

Worse still, it’s who and what Twitch allow on its platform. Like another Redditer job“They literally have banners celebrating terrorism against Jews.”

One of these streamers is Hasan Piker, who my organization StopAntisemitism appointed our anti-Semite of the week in April — and who in 2019 said that “America deserved 9/11, man. Fuck, I say it.

More recently, Piker declared there was no evidence of mass rapes or killings carried out by Hamas last October. Although the terrorist group livestreamed its bloody looting against Israel, hosted by Piker flow where he denied Or rejected Hamas sexual violence goes so far as to say: “It doesn’t matter if fucking rapes took place 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 faced a temporary problem suspension in 2021 for using the word “cracker” to describe white people, he would have earns millions every year thanks to the platform. It’s so beloved by Twitch that CEO Dan Clancy and Twitch employees famous the streamer’s birthday in July by singing to him live. Despite this scandal, Twitch ignored the more than 7,000 complaints our organization sent them regarding Piker’s behavior.

It’s not just Twitch users who peddle hate, employees too. The company’s Trust & Safety team, for example, includes Fadzai Madzingira, who has been suspended from a job at Ofcom, the UK’s independent communications regulator, because of his alleged anti-Israeli bias. On October 16, 2023, when Israel had not yet reacted to the massacre, Madzingira allegedly accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians” on Instagram. job; Still, Twitch thought she was worthy of a job.

What is 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 its unethical boycott of Israel and the anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist voices that thrive there — is deeply troubling.

According to a Twitch spokesperson responding to questions posed by the Post: “There is no place on Twitch for hatred 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 enforce these policies quickly, objectively, and consistently to protect everyone in our community. We take this responsibility seriously and are constantly working to improve and evolve our approach to security.

However, if Twitch does not act responsibly, Amazon should intervene. We are not optimistic.

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

Governor Gavin Newsom, the attorney general and the California Legislature should investigate Twitch’s practices, including their boycott of Israel. The platform is based in California, where strong 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; Golden State almost certainly has contracts with Amazon Web Services.

Finally, Twitch’s Trust & Safety team needs to be overhauled. Oversight and management must be located nationally, not, for example, in Egypt where many staff members have resided, according to an internal whistleblower, and where a Pew poll find 95% of residents express negative opinions towards Jews. The employment of deeply entrenched 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 thrive when our younger generation is led toward hatred.

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