Hyderabad: Zach Hoyt, popularly known as Asmongold, has been suspended from the streaming platform Twitch after he made racist remarks about Palestinians. The account on which he made the remarks has been replaced with a message stating it is "temporarily unavailable" for violating community guidelines. Asmongold, who has over five million followers over two Twitch channels, has apologised in a post on X, writing "I'll do better".
Asmongold received widespread criticism after saying that Palestinians come from an "inferior culture" in a video streamed on October 14. In clips circulated widely online, he made comments suggesting he was not sympathetic to Palestinians killed in the Israeli attacks.
In the video, Zach Hoyt is seen as saying, “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…”
The streamer went on to say, “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."
After facing heavier backlash, his account named ‘Zackrawrr’ was banned from the platform. Known for covering the World of Warcraft along with other games, his other account, ‘Asmongold,’ is still functioning, but Hoyt has not used that channel for almost a year.
A spokesperson for the streaming site told IGN, "We take enforcement action when there are violations of our community guidelines, including our hateful conduct policy and other rules."
Asmongold's rant on Palestinian people received widespread criticism from netizens. Hoyt later apologised through a post on X saying, “Looking back on it, I was way too much of an a-----e 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. You guys deserve more than me saying stupid shit like that, I'll do better.”
