The streamer's apology for racist insults exposes the decline of streaming culture

Last week, top Twitch streamer Zach Hoyt, better known as Asmongold, launched a racist tirade against Palestinians and expressed indifference to the relentless military campaign against them that has claimed over 40,000 lives, including many children. “I don’t give a shit,” he said. “They are terrible people.”

Hoyt is known for his inflammatory language, but the reaction to this latest outburst was enough to give him pause. Shortly after the stream, Hoyt apologized and said, “Looking back, I was way too much of an asshole on the Palestine issue. “My mistake.” Twitch suspended his channel for 14 days and Hoyt said he was relieved of his leadership duties at his media company OTK and its subsidiaries will resign. In a video posted to YouTube, Hoyt said that streaming had had a negative impact on his personality and that over the past two years he had “slowly transformed into the most evil…rude, evil, callous, psychopathic version of…” I myself.”

Hoyt's video inadvertently brought to light a big reason why being online can feel so miserable. It's one of the rare cases where a person with such a large following – 1.8 million followers on Twitch alone – has acknowledged that the rise in reckless, racist, homophobic and misogynistic behavior is due to streaming culture itself.

Popular YouTubers have relied on shock and outrage to generate views for years. In 2017, at the height of his popularity on YouTube, Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg paid two people to hold up a sign with a violent anti-Semitic phrase. A year later, Logan Paul filmed a suicide victim in Japan. Recently, such behaviors have become the rule rather than the exception. And the problem has grown with the shift to live platforms like Twitch, where streamers – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unknowingly – exploit outrage breeding to gain attention.

Jack Doherty, who originally went viral on YouTube by flipping tags, was banned from Kick earlier this month after a livestream showed him crashing his McLaren because he was texting while driving. He asked his cameraman to continue filming even as he and his passengers were pulled from the blood-soaked wreckage. Adin Ross rose to fame through streaming NBA 2Kbut he specifically kept it because his streams are known for hosting racists like Nick Fuentes and alleged rapists like Andrew Tate.

The platforms bear a certain responsibility. More attention means more attention, so platform operators have an incentive to attract, retain and appease streamers wherever they can, even if that sometimes means allowing unsavory behavior. Twitch, the biggest name in the space, is taking an aggressive approach to content moderation, ostensibly to maintain the platform's “brand-safe” image to advertisers. But there are always other platforms ready to accommodate their outcasts.

When it launched in 2022, Kick became the “anti-Twitch,” targeting creators unhappy with the site’s monetization and content policies. But as Kick has grown in popularity and offered creators an alternative in a Twitch-dominated landscape, it has become known for its creators and content that would be banned elsewhere. Last year, Paul “Ice Poseidon” Denino hired a sex worker and then briefly blocked her from leaving when she discovered the encounter was being streamed. Ross showed pornography on his stream and repeatedly offered his fans money for dangerous stunts.

Then there is the gambling. After Twitch banned the practice, Kick – co-founded by the same people who founded casino site Stake – became the de facto home of gambling streams. It uses massive multimillion-dollar contracts to lure big-name developers to the site, where its audience of millions can watch them develop their gaming addictions virtually in real time. Félix “xQc” Lengyel – a streamer who started his career as a gamer Overwatch League – has become one of the most well-known gambling streamers. In 2022, he admitted to being addicted to gambling after revealing on a stream that he had lost $2 million in a single month.

Kick co-founder Ed Craven knows his platform attracts adventure seekers and their escalating behavior. In an interview with The New York TimesHe said: “I think people realize that the more controversial they are, the more shock factor there is in their content, the more viewers they get, and in that respect it can sometimes be a dangerous mix.” But even though he says that As Kick continues to evolve its policies and the site's terms of service prohibit common bad behavior, that hasn't stopped its streamers from continuing to push boundaries.

And if a streamer's actions actually cross the line, what happens next? Historically, the larger a streamer's audience, the more reluctant a platform is to draw meaningful conclusions – and the less influence the platform has over them. For smaller creators, an action like a suspension can be financially significant as they rely on consistent performance to maintain their partnership status or raise funds. But a Twitch streamer like Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff, who has millions of followers and millions of dollars in subscription revenue, doesn’t have the same concerns. When Kolcheff was suspended earlier this year after insulting transgender people, he responded on social media that he didn't know the word that led to his ban was problematic, then made another joke at expense the transgender community.

The most serious consequence a streamer can suffer as a result of their behavior is the permanent loss of their channel. However, platform incentives ensure that there is always another way. As Herschel “Guy” Beahm, better known by his pseudonym Dr. Disrespect, banned from Twitch for reasons that were not initially disclosed, continued streaming and migrated his channel – and its 4 million-strong audience – to YouTube. Following Ross' eighth and final ban from Twitch last year, he joined Kick, where he continues his controversial behavior and recently offered to pay YouTubers to livestream Hurricane Milton. For his birthday, Craven gave him a Rolls-Royce.

Streaming and social media reward people for being their worst selves, and that's starting to have a noticeable impact. Hateful rhetoric like the one Hoyt used is on the rise. External political factors such as the rise of anti-LGBTQ policies, political candidates and sentiment contribute to this. Clips of streamers espousing discriminatory views are circulating on social media, creating the kind of viral moments that haunt streamers. With the resurgence of Gamergate and anti-woke reactionaries, streamers have discovered that appealing to — or at least not alienating — those who agree with these issues can increase viewership. These communities are excited to come out in force now that their opinions are no longer relegated to the fringes of the internet but are being validated by its biggest voices. Reaction to Hoyt's apology on social media included many comments saying he didn't say anything wrong.

Top creators are burned out. MrBeast has warned aspiring creators not to follow in his footsteps. Despite admitting to being an addict, xQc continues his gambling streams, possibly due to the $100 million contract he signed with Kick. Even streamers who aren't known as assholes have to incorporate exaggerated behaviors into their content to keep up views.

That's what makes Hoyt's apology unique, not only because it was a rare moment of sincerity – a sentiment entirely at odds with this new streaming culture – but also because a self-confessed asshole rarely engages in the kind of reflection that he did. He explained that streaming had become his entire life and that he had lost valuable perspectives as a result. “There were aspects of my actions that were unjustifiable,” he said. “Looking back, it’s just disgusting.”

But views must flow, so there is a limit to Hoyt's newfound perspective. On Reddit, his post explaining the apology included a slur once used to describe mentally disabled people — a word that is now making a noticeable and troubling comeback. His post also made it clear that his apology didn't mean he was completely changing his behavior, just that he intended to make future streams more positive. “Don’t worry,” he wrote. “I'll be reacting to a DEI=DIE gaming video on day one to stream again.” The comment had over 800 upvotes.