Twitch Streamer Asmongold's Alt Account Banned Over Racist Remarks About Palestinians

Twitch streamer Asmongold's account banned over racist remarks about Palestinians, sparking debate about hate speech.

Twitch streamer Zack "Asmongold" Hoyt's alt account, zackrawrr, has been banned after he made racist remarks about Palestinians during a livestream. The comments, which included claims that Palestinian culture is "inferior" and that he has no empathy for the victims of genocide, sparked widespread condemnation from the gaming and streaming communities.

Asmongold's remarks were made during a discussion about the Israel-Palestine conflict, in which he stated that "these people are not your allies, they are not the same as us. They come from an inferior culture that is horrible, it kills people for their identity and is directly antithetical to everything Western values stand for and is an inferior culture in all ways."

Many streamers, including Kaceytron and Austin "Gremloe", have welcomed the ban, with Kaceytron calling it an "extremely light penalization". However, some have expressed concerns that the ban is not severe enough, with Palestinian/Lebanese Twitch streamer CapriSunnPapi commending Twitch for "doing the right thing" by banning Asmongold to prevent "bigotry" from being "normalized".

It looks like @Asmongold was banned on his zackrawrr good on Twitch for doing the right thing. We can't allow bigoty to be normalized. pic.twitter.com/vuDCLmK6Kl

— CapriSunnPapi (@CapriSunnPapi) October 15, 2024

Asmongold has since apologized for his comments, stating that he was "too much of an a**hole" and that he does not deserve to have his "life destroyed" despite holding "regressive" views. However, some have criticized his apology, saying that he did not say "sorry" but instead used the phrase "my bad".

The ban has sparked a wider conversation about hate speech and censorship on social media platforms, with some arguing that Twitch has a responsibility to protect its users from harassment and discrimination.