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Twitch, the popular online streaming service, apologized Monday after the company was accused of disabling sign-ups for the platform from some users in Israel and the Palestinian territories since Oct. 7, 2023.
In a post on X, Twitch Support acknowledged that accounts requiring verification by email linked to IP addresses in Israel and the Palestinian territories were blocked from creating new accounts in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
“We did this to prevent uploads of graphic material related to the attack and to protect the safety of users,” the company said.
Twitch is one of the most popular platforms for online live-streaming. Users can broadcast video footage of themselves playing video games, cooking, even sleeping. The site is also a popular destination for political commentary — including about the conflicts in the Middle East. But the immediacy of live-streaming has made the format an enticing target for those looking to broadcast violent footage to a wide audience quickly, including mass shooters.
A Twitch spokesperson told The Post on Tuesday that the suspension mechanism was meant to be temporary “but was mistakenly extended until we were made aware of the error this week.” The company said that users in Israel and Gaza can now create and verify new accounts.
In its statement, Twitch also noted that sign-ups were unobstructed for people using their phone numbers to verify new accounts. “Mobile phone verification still worked and represents roughly half of our new accounts created,” Twitch told The Post. Some social media users and Israeli journalists, however, said they had encountered issues while attempting to verify accounts with their phones.
“It just looks like they banned everything because they were afraid of graphic images and they probably just didn’t want to deal with this stuff,” said Rod Breslau, a gaming and internet culture expert.
Twitch saw a significant round of layoffs earlier this year — with 500 employees, or roughly 35 percent of its staff impacted — which Breslau said may have hindered the platform’s moderation efforts.
That account creation was blocked in both Israel and the Palestinian territories has inflamed political tensions on Twitch, further embroiling the platform in discourse around the conflict. On Monday, the platform suspended multiple Arab and Middle Eastern streamers after a prominent Jewish content creator and the Anti-Defamation League accused Twitch of having an antisemitism problem.
