Twitch changes its hate content policy to include ‘Zionist’ as potential slur

On By Littum

Twitch has revised its “Hateful Content Policy” to include “Zionist” as a potential slur following mounting criticism over the Israel-Gaza war content on the platform.

The platform announced the change in a blog post Fridayand writes that “using the term ‘Zionist’ to attack or denigrate another person or group of people based on their background or religious beliefs is against our rules.”

The platform said that as part of its policy it prohibits “the use of terms that may not be harmful or abusive in isolation, but may be used as a slur or to demean others in certain contexts.”

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

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

The policy change comes after critics of the Amazon-owned streaming service — including lawmaker Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and tAnti-Defamation League – claimed that hatred against Jews has been rampant on Twitch in the past year.

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

Twitch is the latest social media platform to attempt to draw lines around acceptable speech related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. In July, Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – adopted a similar policy, changing its rules to limit 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 expertise. Creators often stream debates on political issues, and some politicians — including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y. and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — have appeared in streams to discuss politics (while playing video games).

Compared to other online platforms, Twitch had largely avoided controversy involving content about the war between Israel and Gaza — until this fall, when online criticism of the platform began to escalate.

In October, Twitch was accused of disabling registrations to the platform from some users in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The platform issued an apologyand wrote that it had “temporarily disabled email verification sign-ups in Israel and Palestine” after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel to “prevent uploads of graphic material related to the attack and to protect user safety.”

Registrations for the platform were not completely disabled, according to Twitch, as users could choose to sign up with phone verification. However, the platform said it “inadvertently … did not re-enable email verification sign-ups for any of the regions.”

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

Twitch had similarly issued a 14-day suspension to an account run by Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt after he commented on the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza, saying they come from an “inferior culture.” Hoyt wrote one video answer the comments go back. He also sent a statement on X, writingin part: “Of course no one deserves to have their life ruined, even if they do things or hold views that I find regressive.”

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

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

Saba Hamedy

Saba Hamedy is the trends and culture editor for NBC News.

Kalhan Rosenblatt and David Ingram the contribution.