When asked for comment on the allegations, a Twitch spokesperson vehemently denied that the platform's actions were evidence of anti-Semitism, citing its community guidelines for protecting its spaces for users.

“There is no place for hate or harassment of any kind on Twitch, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” Twitch representatives said in a statement. “We take this responsibility seriously and are constantly working to improve and develop our approach to security.”

As an example of the content Saltman says he shares with potential Twitch advertisers, the creator shared a video of a T-Mobile ad playing before a clip from pro-Palestinian streamer Hasan Piker that featured reports of mass rape There were no claims by Hamas members during the attack that were never confirmed. (Piker did not respond to a request for comment before publishing this article.)

“I have tried to do this in a way that provides the brands with the greatest possible protection. We send private messages to the brands, media agencies and DSPs and show them videos of their brands' advertising alongside the most vile content,” said Saltman, who told Digiday that his group has already contacted over 100 advertisers such as Kellogg's, Chase and AT&T. These brands, along with 19 others contacted by Digiday, did not respond to requests for comment. “If the brand confirms to us that they have stopped/paused advertising, we will simply remove them from our list and will not show that they have stopped advertising.”

Saltman declined to name specific brands that responded to his messages, nor did he say how many responded. He did not explain his group's planned approach to brands that did not respond to the campaign.

Saltman and other critics of Twitch have also pointed to the content of an official TwitchCon panel on September 21st with live streamers Fr0gan, Vio, CapriSunnPapi, Raffoulticket and DenimsTV, which they viewed as anti-Semitic because it placed streamers on a scale between “Arab” and “Arabic”. loves Sabra.” Saltman told Digiday that he also has issues with Twitch's approach to content moderation, which he says is biased against anti-Israel voices because there are no sanctions against pro-Palestinian streamers like Piker.

Twitch has also publicly responded to the allegations, both by suspending the streamers involved in the controversial TwitchCon panel and by tweeting opinion He explained that the company disabled account verification in Israel and Palestine “to prevent the upload of imagery related to the attack and to protect user safety.” Twitch representatives also denied that the platform's moderation policies are biased, telling Digiday that the platform's “enforcement processes ensure we apply these policies quickly, objectively and consistently to protect all members of our community.”

Suspending email signups is one of several tactics online platforms like Twitch sometimes use to block the spread of harmful content. The company's decision to do this at the start of the Gaza conflict represents an evolution in Twitch's approach to content moderation, as the platform did not adopt this type of policy at the start of other current and ongoing armed conflicts, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has implemented.

“Following the attacks on October 7, 2023, Twitch has suspended the ability to create new accounts via email verification in both Gaza and Israel. We did this to prevent new streamers from creating accounts with only email verification that might stream disturbing videos related to the attacks,” the Twitch representative said.

“This action did not completely restrict new account creation for customers in these regions, as mobile phone verification continued to work and accounted for approximately half of our newly created accounts. The suspension was intended as a temporary measure to prevent the uploading of graphic content to ensure the safety of our customer community. However, it was incorrectly extended until we were made aware of the error this week. Once we were made aware of the issue, it was quickly resolved and new accounts in both Gaza and Israel can now be created and verified via both email and mobile.”

With less than a week to go before the U.S. presidential election, most brands are likely to avoid making public decisions that could be even vaguely interpreted as a political or ideological statement. As such, there is no public evidence that brands have changed their approach to Twitch due to the recent anti-Semitism allegations against the platform.

“I can’t say whether we’re pulling or not; What I can say, however, is that our advertising is absolutely aimed at increasing consumer awareness of our products,” said Lloryn Love-Carter, senior manager of corporate communications at Nissan, one of the brands contacted by Saltman’s group. “That’s our goal – not to make political comments.”

Despite the scandal, advertisers are becoming increasingly educated about the diverse ways to reach the online gaming community and are increasingly directing their ad spend toward forms of inventory beyond Twitch pre-roll and interstitial ads. This is one of the reasons why Twitch itself has started investing in alternative advertising methods, such as an officially branded Fortnite creative world. Regardless of the impact of Saltman's campaign, his decision to pursue the platform's advertising business signals that online creators currently view advertising as one of the platform's potential weak points.

This story has been updated to reflect Twitch's response to moderation bias.