Streaming platform Twitch banned several prominent Arab streamers from participating in a panel discussion held at TwitchCon last month. Banned anchors include Capri Sampapi, Frogan, Lafort Tickets, cowboy tvand Vio (not Arab), all of whom took part in a livestreaming panel called “Rated Streamers” on day two of TwitchCon San Diego, where they placed popular Twitch characters on a tiered list of who can or can’t say ” middle.
The 30-day ban appeared to come at the same time, following days of social media conversations accusing several Arab and pro-Palestinian Twitch streamers of anti-Semitism. one Clip of Fr0gan saying she ‘wishes’ US soldiers suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) The live broadcast was shared on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, with commentary by YouTubers Ethan Klein and Steven Kenneth Bonnell II (aka Destiny).
On October 20, Fr0gan issued an apology on X and wrote:
The United States military has committed some of the most horrific crimes against humanity in modern times in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, and my anger is directed at the individuals who currently support these war crimes as if they “liberated” my people . This is horrific and disgusting. The beginning of the clip was poorly worded and I apologize for that. I went on to clarify in the clip that I didn’t mean “all” military personnel, but those who showed no remorse. I say this out of frustration because they are currently bombarding my family in the name of “liberation”. I realized that wishing people to be hurt was not the best way to talk about these issues and I could have talked about these topics in a more sensitive way.
However, it appears that Fr0gan was banned not because of something she said in a recent stream, but rather because of the ratings streaming panel from September 21st. , called a tier list, where the top of the tier is the “best”, or in this case, using “habibi” the most acceptable, and the bottom is the least acceptable. On the TwitchCon panel, the ranks were labeled “Arabic Coded, Asking for Permission, Thinking This Is Slurred, and Like Sabra,” referring to the popular American-made hummus brand Sabra Hummus. The entire second day of TwitchCon’s VOD (when the rated stream airs) has been removed from the GivePlz Twitch channel that hosts all TwitchCon videos. The video is still available to watch on the Ayyrabs YouTube page.
Fr0gan, Capri, and Raffoul are all Arabs (Fr0gan is Muslim, Raffoul is Jewish, and Capri is Christian) and host a podcast together called Ayyrabs. DenimsTV is for Arab women and Vio is for Middle Eastern women. Two other anchors who briefly participated in the group were not Arab or Middle Eastern. They were not banned at the time of publication.
October 19, Klein A video titled “Twitch Has a Big Problem” was posted on YouTube In it, he said the group was “kind of Arab good, Jewish bad” because Sabra is Israel’s “very popular hummus brand” and is ” [a] Support the Palestinian boycott. He also shared a clip from the panel in which Denims jokingly said Klein should be classified as a “Zionist.” Then go live on YouTube todayOn October 20, Klein discussed Fr0gan, “Tier List,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, and Hasan “Hasanabi” Piker, another prominent political anchor who co-hosted with Klein before the two fell out. The live broadcast was titled “Dan Clancy must resign as CEO of Twitch.”
Ban Wave (It also appears to include a permanent ban on popular streamer Sneakoan example of someone who shouldn’t be allowed back on Twitch, was mentioned by Klein in a YouTube video on October 19th) that occurred while Klein was live streaming. “Getting a 30-day ban for saying people like hummus at the bottom of the barrel, but someone else getting a 2-week ban for advocating genocide against Palestinians. Got it,” Posted by Fr0gan on X After the ban was announced, it refers to Twitch bans streamer Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt 14 days ago, he said in a recent live broadcast that Muslim people come from a “lower culture” and that “he will not cry when people who are genocide in the law are genocide.”
Capri also reacted to his banwrote: “Ngl, I’m going to take a few days off and then I’ll come back live and rank hummus, just to prove a point. #hummusgate” on X.
Before the ban, but amid heated conversations online about the group’s alleged anti-Semitism, LaFore, who is Jewish, wrote on X“These assholes are so anti-Semitic, I’m on the ‘Who Can Say Habibi’ list and they’re trying to make this up as ‘Frogen ranking people from Arabs to Jews’ to keep the Jews away from you he Damn your mouth.
October 21, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Share on The company said it had spoken with Twitch staff “after becoming aware of several related incidents that occurred on social media platforms over the past week and/or involving Twitch streamers.”
“We appreciate @twitch Made the right decision to finally suspend streamer Frogan for abusing her platform and @TwitchCon During a time of intense anxiety for the Jewish community, this is an incident that spreads anti-Semitic vitriol,” the Anti-Defamation League’s official account wrote in a post. “@twitch Having to learn from this situation and improve how they address antisemitism and hate on their platforms is an ongoing and significant challenge.
It’s unclear why Twitch chose to issue a ban on a group that happened a month ago and whose content the company was aware of, my city Confirmed. During TwitchCon 2024, the company highlighted Platform ‘no place for hateful behavior’ after new content announced change and progress its prohibition policy.
my city We’ve reached out to ADL and Twitch for comment and will update this story accordingly.
Updated: October 21, 2024 at 11:20 PM ET: Updated story to provide more background on Sneako’s ban.
.
