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On October 20, 2024, Amazon's popular streaming service, Twitch, issued a formal apology acknowledging that it had . In the weeks leading up to Twitch’s apology, a media meltdown took place labelling the platform as anti-Semitic.

Twitch explained that its decision to block account creation was to prevent potentially violent and graphic streams. However, their apology was quickly disregarded by creators who accused the platform of anti-Semitism. On October 29, 2024, NY-15 representative, Richie Torres, wrote a letter to Twitch demanding they ban Popular streamer, Ethan Klein, even went so far as to say of Twitch CEO, Dan Clancy, “I think he hates Jewish people.”

Over the past two months, Twitch users have found dozens of examples contradicting Klein’s claim and showing that the platform has in fact shut down content creators who voice support for Palestine, not Israel.

Most notably, media outlets pointed out that streamer, Frogan, was hit with a month-long ban after advocating for the boycott of Israeli hummus brand, Sabra, compared to Asmongold, a streamer who was punished with a two-week ban after saying that he did not care if .

On November 21, Frogan had her comeback stream. “A 30-day ban is a severe punishment for someone who is a full-time streamer,” says Frogan. “It’s my full time job.”

And despite a positive welcome back to the platform, the fear caused by the bans has users and creators wondering what censorship is yet to come.

“1000% there are double standards. You can call for genocide with a two-week ban, but then a fun meme tier list is turned into a hateful thing,” says Frogan. 

Twitch creators and engineers argue that this censorship is customary both on the platform and in the entire tech industry broadly.

“Unjust measures against Arab Twitch streamers are being made without any transparency, and when workers question injustice, they are swiftly shut down,” says an anonymous Twitch Software Engineer.

Since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Meta and removed content in support of Palestine from Instagram. As Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza has repeatedly pointed out, the platform has When workers at Meta attempted to fix the false labelling or organise internally to demand that the company stop silencing Palestinian voices,  

The rampant censorship of pro-Palestine voices online has led tech companies to repeatedly violate their own terms of service.

“We are capitulating to outside pressure rather than actually enforcing our own rules,” says an anonymous Twitch Software Engineer who argues that the bulk of bans have not occurred due to actual infringements but due to threats from the ADL.

“Twitch was one of the few platforms that upheld free speech, but because of pressure from the ADL they have begun to crack down on pro-Palestine voices severely.” Because Twitch failed to identify what policy Frogan and the Ayyrabs Podcast members violated, creators at Twitch are forced to be silent or risk losing income once again.

“At this point in my career, I am not even sure how to have a conversation about Palestinian human rights on Twitch,” says Frogan.

Despite the overwhelming censorship of pro-Palestine voices in tech, the narrative of Zionist victimhood remains persistent. As Israel continues to slaughter hundreds of thousands in Gaza, Americans are expected to entertain the notion that companies like Meta and Amazon —the latter of which has deep ties to Israeli apartheid through the $1.2B Project Nimbus contract, with a committed $7.2B additional investment announced last August; and which is actively competing with Google for an — are hatefully targeting Israelis.

“Israel's deep relationship with Amazon makes the accusation of antisemitism absurd. It’s just obviously disingenuous. It is as if they don’t have a hand in the genocide and enabling Israel anyway.” says the anonymous Twitch engineer.

Beyond institutional bias, Twitch also protects harassment of pro-Palestine creators.

“There is a very clear harassment campaign coming from characters like Destiny [a Zionist Twitch Streamer] who call on their fans to attack other streamers. They pressure large institutions to attack streamers without them violating anything.”

This impunity, the engineer argues, comes from the level of success pro-Palestine voices have achieved on Twitch.

“The targeting is very clearly connected to the fact that pro-Palestine voices have found a home on Twitch. Because of how big Hasan is, Twitch is being attacked more than other platforms that have real antisemitism.”

Both the engineer and Frogan believe that attacks against Twitch are motivated to combat pro-Palestine speech, not antisemitism. “When 7 October happened and what happened in Palestine became mainstream, people became educated and began advocating for the cause. Opponents of Palestinian liberation haven’t seen this before, so all they can do is try to silence us,” says Frogan.

Many engineers in big tech are wondering what protections exist for ethics. The industry is overwhelmed by examples of unfair treatment and ethical depravity.

Google watched their own former intern, without so much as a word of condolence. Microsoft for grieving the innocent martyrs of Gaza in a peaceful vigil. Meta regularly removes content published by Palestinians who desperately share their stories and images.

But tech worker-organisers also remain adamant in their demands for divestment from Israeli apartheid and justice for Palestine.

The No Tech for Apartheid campaign, a coalition of tech workers across the industry seeking divestment from Israel, continues the fight against Amazon, Twitch, and Google’s Project Nimbus contract.

The Nimbus agreement was just recently revealed to have been signed by .

No Tech for Apartheid recently partnered with Palestine solidarity groups at major American universities including Harvard University to .

“So long as American imperialism persists, voices for liberation will be pummeled by institutional silencing,” says Zelda Montes, a former Google engineer and organiser with No Tech for Apartheid.

“Our efforts must continue through and in spite of censorship. And we cannot stop at reform. The fight is finished when accountability and liberation are achieved.”

Mohammad Khatami a former Google software engineer and organiser with

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