Asmongold Twitch ban is only temporary after ‘racist’ remarks about Palestinians-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro

Asmongold has apologised, sort of (Twitch)

Twitch streamer Asmongold has had one of his channels banned after describing Palestinians as ‘terrible people’ with an ‘inferior culture’.

Zack Hoyt, the popular streamer best known as Asmongold, has been temporarily banned from Twitch after making racist remarks.

The World Of Warcraft streamer discussed the conflict in Gaza, which has seen over 40,000 Palestinians killed, during his broadcast on Monday. Following his comments, clips from the stream were shared on social media and widely criticised.

‘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. ‘So no, I’m not going to cry a f***ing river when people who have genocide that’s baked into their laws are getting genocided. I don’t give a f***. They’re terrible people. It’s not even a question. It’s crazy that people don’t see it that way.’

He added: ‘They’d [Palestinians] be doing the same thing. 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’s 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.’

Following the comments and subsequent backlash on social media, Twitch has temporarily banned Hoyt’s main Zackrawrr channel. At the time of writing, when you try to access the channel page, a message reads: ‘This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s community guidelines or terms of service.’

Hoyt’s other Twitch channel, titled Asmongold, has been unaffected, but he hasn’t streamed on there for the past two years.

As confirmed by Twitch (via IGN), his remarks were in breach of the platform’s hateful conduct policy, which ‘does not permit behaviour that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, including behaviour that promotes or encourages discrimination, denigration, harassment, or violence based on the following protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, colour, caste, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical condition, and veteran status’.

It’s unclear how long the Zackrawrr channel will be offline. GameCentral has reached out to Twitch for clarification.

Hoyt has since made an attempt to apologise for the comments on Twitter following the ban. ‘Looking back on it, I was way too much of an asshole about the Palestine thing,’ he wrote.

‘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 s*** like that, I’ll do better.’

Not everyone is convinced by his tone though . ”My bad’ shows how much empathy you clearly have,’ one user wrote in response. Another added: ‘No one is accepting that weak apology.’

This isn’t the first time Hoyt has caused controversy. Earlier this year, he was criticised after he dismissed the winner of a streaming award as a ‘diversity pick’, while he also came under fire for saying ‘artists don’t matter’.

What you see when you access his page now (Twitch)

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

MORE : Twitch streamer goes on incredible 3,000km trek across Japan and gets the perfect ending

MORE : Twitch streamer Nadeshot saves friend’s life who was choking on a steak fajita

MORE : TimTheTatman, DrLupo and more rush back to Twitch as YouTube deals end

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Entertainment – MetroRead More