• Streamer Asmongold was suspended from his Twitch channel after his Islamophobic and racist comments, prompting backlash, violating Twitch’s “Hateful Conduct” policy.
• Hoyt later apologised on X. Fellow streamer Hasan Piker condemned the remarks and invited Hoyt to discuss them on his channel.
Zack Hoyt, the prominent streamer known as Asmongold, faced a temporary suspension on one of his Twitch channels following backlash over a racially charged tirade against Palestinians and vile Islamophobic comments. Hoyt’s primary streaming channel, Zackrawrr, now displays the message, “This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.” His other channel, Asmongold, remains active, though he has not streamed on it since last year.
In response to inquiries from IGN, a Twitch spokesperson stated, “We take enforcement action when there are violations of our community guidelines, including our hateful conduct policy and other rules.”
The controversy erupted on Monday as Hoyt, who initially gained fame as a World of Warcraft streamer, commented on the ongoing Gaza conflict, where over 186,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Israeli attacks, according to the Lancet journal.
Clips of Hoyt’s remarks rapidly circulated on social media. During the stream, he stated:
“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… So no, I’m not going to cry a fcking river when people who have genocide that’s baked into their laws are getting genocided. I don’t give a fck. They’re terrible people. It’s not even a question.”
He further added:
“They’d (Palestinians) be doing the same thing… 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… directly antithetical to everything Western values stand for, and it is an inferior culture in all ways. It is that simple.”
The remarks prompted a significant backlash online, with one clip amassing 28.8 million views on X. Another prominent streamer, Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker, who has been outspoken on the Gaza massacre and the plight of the Palestinians, lambast Hoyt’s comments, describing them as “straight up, one-to-one, what Nazis said about Jewish people.” Piker later hosted Hoyt on his own channel to discuss the remarks.
Hoyt subsequently addressed the backlash on his X account, stating, “Looking back on it, I was way too much of an asshole about the Palestine thing. My bad.” He added, “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.”
Critics highlighted that Hoyt’s statements likely violated Twitch’s Community Guidelines, specifically the “Hateful Conduct” policy, which forbids “behavior that is motivated by hatred, prejudice, or intolerance, including behavior that promotes or encourages discrimination, denigration, harassment, or violence based on… race, ethnicity, color, caste, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical condition, and veteran status.”
The duration of Hoyt’s suspension remains uncertain, and he has not commented further on other social media channels. IGN has reached out to Hoyt for additional comments.
