Zack Hoyt, the popular streamer best known as Asmongold, has had one of his channels temporarily banned from Twitch after garnering backlash for a racist rant about Palestinians and the conflict in Gaza.
Going to Zackrawrr, the channel on which Hoyt primarily streams and where he made the remarks, now leads to a notification that says, "This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service." Another one of Hoyt's channels, Asmongold, is still live, although he hasn't streamed on that channel since last year.
The situation erupted on Monday while Hoyt, once primarily a World of Warcraft streamer, was discussing the ongoing conflict on Gaza, which has seen more than 42,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks. The comments were quickly clipped out and shared on social media.
"If you want to consider it genocide as a systematic killing of a group of people, they have genocide built into Sharia law right now," Hoyt said during the stream. "So no, I'm not going to cry a f*cking river when people who have genocide that's baked into their laws are getting genocided. I don't give a f*ck. They're terrible people. It's not even a question. It's crazy that people don't see it that way."
"They'd (Palestinians) be doing the same thing," he continued. "'And how much did they kill?' As many as they can. They're not able to kill as many people as Israel because they don't have as many bombs and as many weapons. But if they did, they'd be doing the same thing... 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 it is directly antithetical to everything Western values stand for, and it is an inferior culture in all ways. It is that simple."
Asmongold on the genocide in Gaza
— Hasanabi productions (meme account) (@HasanabiProd) October 14, 2024
"I don't give af, they're terrible people" "They come from an inferior culture" pic.twitter.com/4kbEy0UYm2
Hoyt's comments swiftly garnered a torrent of backlash on social media, with the clip racking up 28.8 million views on at least one X/Twitter channel. Another popular streamer who's been vocal about the conflict in Gaza and the plight of Palestinians, Hasan "HasanAbi" Piker, also had Hoyt on his channel for a discussion after criticizing the remarks as "straight up, one-to-one, what Nazis said about Jewish people."
Later, Hoyt addressed the controversy on his X/Twitter account, writing, "Looking back on it, I was way too much of an asshole about the Palestine thing. My bad."
"Of course no one deserves to have their life destroyed even if they do things or have views I find regressive," he continued. "You guys deserve more than me saying stupid shit like that, I'll do better."
Looking back on it, I was way too much of an asshole about the Palestine thing
— Zack (@Asmongold) October 15, 2024
My bad
Of course no one deserves to have their life destroyed even if they do things or have views I find regressive
You guys deserve more than me saying stupid shit like that, I'll do better
But, in addition to criticizing the rant itself, some pointed out that they may be in direct violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines. Specifically, the "Hateful Conduct" section of the guidelines was called out, which among many other measures prohibits "behavior that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, including behavior that promotes or encourages discrimination, denigration, harassment, or violence based on the following protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, color, caste, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical condition, and veteran status."
It's currently unclear how long the ban will last, and Hoyt has not commented on it on any of his other social media channels so far. IGN has reached out to Hoyt and Twitch for comment.
