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Twitch is changing its policy on hateful content to include “Zionist” as a possible slur

Vaseline November 16, 2024

Twitch has revised its ‘Hateful Content Policy’ to include ‘Zionist’ as a possible slur following mounting criticism of Israel-Gaza war content on the platform.

The platform announced the change in a blog post on Friday, writing that “using the term ‘Zionist’ to attack or demean another individual or group of people based on their background or religious beliefs violates our rules.”

The platform said that, as part of its policy, it “prohibits the use of terms that are not in themselves harmful or offensive, but that in certain contexts could be used as a slur or to denigrate others.”

The term “Zionism” is often associated with a political movement that began in the 19th century, before the founding of Israel, to create a nation-state for the Jewish people.

“We recognize that ‘Zionist’ and ‘Zionism’ also refer to a political movement,” Twitch wrote in its blog post. “Using the term to refer to the political movement, whether in a supportive or critical manner, does not violate our hateful conduct policy. Our goal is not to suppress conversations or criticism of an institution or ideology, but to prevent coded hatred against individuals and groups of people.”

The policy change comes after critics of Amazon’s streaming service — including lawmaker Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and the Anti-Defamation League — argued that hatred toward Jewish people has prevailed on Twitch in the past year.

When asked about the criticism, a spokesperson for the streaming platform NBC News previously referred to a Nov. 1 blog post in which Twitch CEO Dan Clancy reiterated that “hate and harassment have no place on Twitch.”

Twitch is the latest social media platform to attempt to draw lines around acceptable speech regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict. In July, Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – introduced a similar policy, changing its rules to restrict the use of the word “Zionists”, saying the term had often become a proxy for hate speech against Jews.

In recent years, Twitch has become a burgeoning home for political pundits. Creators often stream debates about political issues, and some politicians — including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz – have appeared on streams to discuss politics (while playing video games).

Compared to other online platforms, Twitch has largely dodged controversy over the content of the Israel-Gaza war — until this fall, when online criticism of the platform began to escalate.

In October, Twitch was accused of disabling logins to the platform from some users in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The platform apologized and wrote that it had “temporarily disabled email verification logins in Israel and Palestine” following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 to “prevent uploads of graphic materials related to the attack and to ensure security.” protect”. of users.”

According to Twitch, logins on the platform were not completely disabled, as users could choose to log in with phone verification. However, the platform said it “accidentally…didn’t re-enable email verification logins for either region.”

Also in October, Twitch had imposed a 30-day ban on a group of streamers, many of whom are Arab, for “hateful conduct” during their panel discussion at TwitchCon in San Diego in September.

Twitch had similarly issued a 14-day suspension on an account belonging to Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt after he made comments about the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza, saying they come from an “inferior culture.” Hoyt posted a video response in which he returned the comments. He also posted a statement on

Clancy, Twitch’s CEO, wrote in his November blog post that the platform will not tolerate “racism, hatred or harassment of any kind, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”

He said Twitch “works hard to ensure our community is a safe place.”