Three major companies pull Twitch ads amid antisemitism allegations
Twitch/Unsplash: LinusmimietzJPMorgan, AT&T, and Dunkin have removed their Twitch ads amid allegations of antisemitism against the Amazon-owned platform.
The controversy began back in October when Twitch revealed they had prevented some users in Israel from joining the platform for a whole year following the October 7, 2023, attacks.
Twitch and its CEO Dan Clancy also faced calls from US House member Ritchie Torres to “stop popularizing those who popularize antisemitism,” and singled out Hasan’s streams in the process.
Richard Lewis reported in November that “significant” Twitch advertisers have paused their spending over the antisemitism concerns, and now a report from Bloomberg has confirmed it.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, AT&T and Dunkin stop Twitch ads
According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase, AT&T, and Dunkin have pulled spots from the Amazon-owned platform, and Chevron is considering ending future support as well.
Chevron’s complaint against Twitch comes after its name appeared in the background of a controversial panel discussion at TwitchCon 2024 that saw the likes of Frogan and several others getting banned for 30 days.
Bloomberg says AT&T, JPMorgan, and Dunkin have been removed from the marketing partner section of the Twitch Rivals website but refused to comment on the situation at hand.
Chevron, however, did issue a statement to the publication, slamming the “deeply hurtful” comments made during the TwitchCon panel.
“Derogatory comments made by panelists in one session at the TwitchCon event were deeply hurtful and not aligned with our company’s beliefs,” they said. “[Chevron] relied on conference organizers to exercise stringent oversight of presentations and content, and we are disappointed that such divisive rhetoric was allowed onstage.”
This comes after Dan Saltman went viral across social media with his calls for an “all-out advertiser blitz” after launching a campaign to share antisemitism allegations with Twitch’s top advertisers. He’s since been banned from the streaming site.
Twitch has addressed the allegations several times since October, including asking streamers to place political content under a new tag and even banning the word zionist from being used to “attack or demean another individual.”