Twitch Blocking New Users From Israel Controversy

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Overview

The Twitch Blocking New Users From Israel Controversy, also known as Twitch Banning Israeli and Palestinian User Signups Controversy, refers to online backlash over reports that Twitch was blocking new users from Israel and Palestine from signing up for the platform for a period of time in 2024. This was first alleged by X / Twitter users as early as May 2024. The claim went viral in October 2024 after several X users, including @dancantstream, posted about it, spreading the controversy online. Later that month, Twitch then released a statement claiming that it temporarily blocked people from Israel and Palestine from signing up for Twitch with email following the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, stating that users from the regions could still sign up via phone verification and that email verification was mistakenly not re-enabled. Purportedly, they instated the block to stop people from uploading "graphic material related to the attack and to protect the safety of users." The incident inspired widespread accusations and speculation that the company did this for antisemitic reasons, despite Twitch's claims that the company meant to re-enable access sooner. It was also found that, allegedly, phone signups were disabled despite Twitch's claims.

Background

On May 27th, 2024, X^[1] user and streamer @Forceultraomega posted a screenshot of an error message one of their viewers received when trying to sign up for the platform. The screenshot also includes a block of code allegedly tied to the error message that states they were blocked from creating an account due to a "blocked country IP."

The post reads, "I’ve been streaming for the past 3 years and have transferred my viewers from YouTube to Twitch 2 years ago. I’ve discovered around a month ago that A LOT of my longtime viewers have not been able to sign up to Twitch because they’re located in Israel, which is insane." The post gained over 293,000 views and 1,400 likes in five months.

The user continues to talk about the situation as a thread, writing:

Us, the Hebrew speakers that live in Israel, have been thriving for the last 2 and a half years on twitch, it’s very disappointing to see that twitch are actively but silently trying to push us down when we’re just trying to have fun on stream. I get that the situation in here is complicated and everyone has a lot of criticism towards Israel, but that doesn’t justify this.
For a lot of the viewers here, the streamers give them an escape from reality for 3~ ish hours or however long the live is. This just gives off horrible vibes from twitch and is a bad look however you look at it. There’s no reason for us to not be able to sign up to twitch from here, pretty distasteful. The streamers as well took a hit here with viewership not being up to par to the numbers that we had on YouTube and viewers not being able to donate to their favorite streamers.
We deserve to be able to get money from our supporters like every other streamer.

According to Twitch's later statement^[9] on the issue and reporting^[12] following the online controversy in October 2024, the ban went into effect shortly after October 7th, 2023, following the attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Developments

On September 13th, 2024, Redditor u/Nervous_Award3577 made a post to the subreddit /r/Twitch^[2] claiming they could not sign up for Twitch, clarifying that they are from Israel in a comment.

On October 20th, the claims that Twitch was blocking Israeli people from making accounts went viral on X. For example, that day, X^[3] user @not_JayVee made a post sharing a message from Twitch confirming that the user is ineligible to make an account, writing, "Twitch support responds to the Israel block, confirms that they are not eligible in creating a Twitch Account."

On the same day, X^[4] user @dancantstream made a post, writing, "I have confirmed at least first hand, with several people I know PERSONALLY to live in Israel, that they can not create accounts and receive a 'banned country' error." The post also reads, "I'm sure twitch will try to defend this with 'Yes, we banned Israel but we also banned Gaza !!'" The post gained over 161,000 views and 3,500 likes in a day.

The claim spread online that day, inspiring several others to attempt to make accounts either from Israel or Palestine or using a VPN to appear as though they're in Israel or Palestine, resulting in the same error message.

For example, on October 20th, 2024, X^[5] user @BoxLoner made a post sharing the error message, writing, "This is the error code when someone tries to make a Twitch account in Israel. Ironic that the person who sent me this is Palestinian," garnering over 2,700 likes in a day.

The reports were soon picked up by the media, with ynet^[6] reporting on it that day. X^[7] user @AviBittMD shared the article on October 20th, writing, "Advertisers should be aware of the practices of this platform, of course," garnering over 2,900 likes in a day. The reports also went viral on the subreddit /r/LivestreamFail^[8] that day in a post that garnered over 27,000 upvotes in a similar timeframe.

Twitch's Statement

On the night of October 20th, 2024, the official @TwitchSupport X^[9] account posted a response to the claims that the company was blocking Israeli users from signing up for Twitch. In the statement, Twitch claimed that people in both Israel and Palestine were temporarily blocked from making accounts following the October 7th, 2023, attacks to "prevent uploads of graphic material related to the attack and to protect the safety of users."

The company writes that signups were only disabled via email, with Israeli and Palestinian users still able to sign up via their phone numbers. Twitch writes that, "We’ve learned that, inadvertently, we did not re-enable email verification sign ups for either region" and that the company "deeply regret this unacceptable miss, and the confusion it has caused," claiming to have fixed the problem. The post gained over 1.6 million views, 1,300 likes and 480 replies in a day.

Later that night, Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch, shared the Twitch Support statement on X,^[14] writing, "Very sorry about this mistake. The following tweet explains what happened. We only discovered this problem today and quickly worked to fix it. The tweet explains what happened," garnering around 220 likes in two days.

On October 21st, 2024, X^[15] user @dancantstream posted a video taken before the ban was fixed, in which, while showing Twitch's code, he attempts to sign up for Twitch from an Israeli VPN using his phone number. According to Twitch's apology statement, this was still possible the whole time Israel and Palestine were region blocked. In the video, a verification code is never sent to his phone number, meaning he was not allowed to signup. The user writes, "Attached is a video showing that mobile signup was not working in Israel @djclancy999 Resign, anti semite," garnering over 3,000 likes in a day.

Hey djclancy999</a> About that "Mobile signups still working" thing. Sure doesnt fucking seem like it. Thank god we took recordings before you did damge control. Attached is a video showing that mobile signup was not working in Israel<a href="https://twitter.com/djclancy999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">djclancy999 Resign, anti semite. pic.twitter.com/pDm6TlotIZ

— dan cant tweet (@dancantstream) October 21, 2024

Online Reactions

The controversy inspired numerous reactions online as it spread in late October 2024, with many criticizing Twitch for blocking users from signing up, some suggesting that the practice was antisemitic, despite Twitch's statement claiming it was a mistake.

For example, on October 20th, 2024, the xQc Clips YouTube^[10] channel uploaded a video of xQc reacting to the controversy, garnering over 15,000 views in a day.

Following the statement from Twitch support, the /r/Twitch^[11] subreddit pinned a post titled, "Antisemitism or Islamophobia is not tolerated in /r/twitch, violaters [sic] will be banned," linking to Twitch's statement.

On October 21st, 404Media^[12] notably reported on the controversy as it continued to spread. Amid the backlash, the website Dan Clancy Sucks^[13] was also created in late October 2024, stating at the top of the landing page "Dan Clancy's Twitch is an Anti-Semitic Hellhole."