DJ Akademiks wasn’t the only Twitch streamer to have been banned this week.
On October 15, creator Zack “Asmongold” Hoyt was temporarily suspended from the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform. According to reporter Rod “Slasher” Breslau, Hoyt was suspended for 14 days. But who is he, what happened, and why was one of his Twitch accounts temporarily nuked? Don’t worry, we got you.
Who Is Asmongold?
If you’re in the gaming world, the “Asmongold” name should be familiar. But for those who don’t know, Hoyt is a streamer who’s been uploading YouTube videos since at least 2009. He started as a World of Warcraft creator, posting strategies and thoughts around Blizzard Entertainment’s 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).
Eventually, he began streaming on Twitch around 2011, where he would continue to play the storied MMORPG alongside games like Call of Duty, Minecraft, Path of Exile, and Rust. Streaming for multiple hours at a time, he’d go on to amass millions of followers across all of his social media accounts, including his two main broadcasting channels: Asmongold and ZackRawrr.
In addition to streaming regularly, Hoyt is also the co-owner of two businesses.
The first is One True King (or “OTK” for short), a Texas-based content creation organization featuring other gaming and lifestyle streamers like Emiru, Mizkif, Cyr, Nmplol, WillNeff (the latter three appeared in TwitchCon’s DebateLords show), and more. The other business, meanwhile, is a Texas-based gaming PC building company known as Starforge Systems.
Why Was Asmongold Suspended?
Twitch doesn’t often inform creators on the platform why they were banned, though this is set to change in updates the company plans to make to its guidelines sometime next year. Similarly, the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform doesn’t publicize when and why a creator has been reprimanded. However, based on some context clues, we can make an educated guess as to why the popular gaming creator had his account suspended.
Hoyt, who primarily streams on his second ZackRawrr Twitch account, was discussing the genocide in Gaza with his chat. During a multi-hour stream, he made comments many online considered racist and problematic.
“If you want to consider it genocide as a systematic killing of a group of people, they have genocide built into Sharia law right now," Hoyt said of Palestinian people, more than 41,500 of whom have been killed since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in October 2023, according to an October 1 Reuters report. "So no, I'm not going to cry a f*cking river when people who have genocide that's baked into their laws are getting genocided. I don't give a f*ck. They're terrible people. It's not even a question. It's crazy that people don't see it that way.”
Hoyt would go on to describe Palestinians as “not your allies” and “not the same as us,” claiming they come from “an inferior culture that is horrible.” He said he wasn’t supporting any of what’s happening in the Middle East, stating he won’t get behind “a group of people that would kill a gay person or a trans person for existing.” His statements were met with swift backlash online from every entity, big and small. Some called him a “fascist,” others called him a “Nazi,” and a majority of netizens said he was “stupid” for the Islamophobic hate speech.
What Led To Asmongold’s Suspension?
Hoyt’s ZackRawrr account was suspended not too long after he made these comments on stream. Before getting offlined, though, he appeared on an October 14 stream with leftist political commentator and Twitch broadcaster Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker to debate the issue. After about three-and-a-half hours of back-and-forth discourse on the conflict, Hoyt took to X to kinda-sorta apologize for his remarks.
“Looking back on it, I was way too much of an a**hole about the Palestine thing,” he said about his recent statements. “My bad. Of course no one deserves to have their life destroyed even if they do things or have views I find regressive You guys deserve more than me saying stupid sh*t like that, I'll do better.”
It was around here that Hoyt’s ZackRawrr account was suspended. If you search for it, you’ll get a message stating it’s “temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.”
Twitch makes it clear in both its Community Guidelines and Terms of Service that hateful rhetoric that encourages or glorifies violence against a group of people could result in a channel suspension or ban. And since Hoyt’s comments were interpreted by many to be just that, the company quickly stepped in to take action. Hoyt still has his Asmongold account, which has over three million followers, but per Twitch’s rules, he could get officially banned if he went live there as that act could be considered a form of ban evasion.
Twitch told Complex in an email that it takes its rules very seriously.
“We take enforcement action when there are violations of our community guidelines, including our hateful conduct policy and other rules,” a Twitch representative said in an emailed statement.
What Does Asmongold Have To Say About Everything?
Hoyt uploaded a 20-minute video to his YouTube channel on October 16 addressing the situation. He apologized for his words, acknowledging that what he said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was "disgusting"
"I said that I didn't care about innocent people getting killed by another force—by anything," Hoyt said. "I think that's a horrible, disgusting, mean-spirited thing to say. I don't necessarily think it was really racist. [...] I'm sorry. I was a fucking asshole and was "
He admitted to being an "a**hole," opening up to the fact that his personality has devolved into a "mean-spirited, rude, callous, psychopathic version" of who he was. He teared up as he talked about how people who have family in Palestine reached out to him. He clarified that, because of his atheism, he's always had a negative opinion of religion but that shouldn't blanket over others' faith. He even said he's going to "cut down" on streaming while also taking a step back from OTK and Starforge so he can "be a better version" of himself. It sounds as if this situation was an eye-opening experience for Hoyt.
Complex reached out to Asmongold for comment.
Hoyt’s suspension is only 14 days. Since his sentence began on October 15, his ZackRawrr account should be restored by October 29. We hope this is a good lesson in educating yourself before you speak.