As mainstream social platforms crack down on political content, Amazon-owned Twitch has fast become a hub for activism and political news coverage. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
In March, Instagram and Threads head Adam Mosseri announced that the meta platform would restrict any content related to politics or social issues. YouTube has downgraded political content as part of an effort to steer people away from extremism. Since Musk’s acquisition, X has banned or restricted the accounts of left-leaning political content creators. And TikTok, which is facing an imminent ban by the U.S. government, frequently removes the accounts of creators who post about political issues and lean toward violating content.
But politics on Twitch is thriving, with content creators attracting thousands of engaged viewers by covering breaking political news and leveraging their community for progressive causes. A few weeks ago, after witnessing the escalating Israeli attacks on Gaza, over 100 top content creators from across platforms came together to form Creators For Palestine, a collective of influencers dedicated to raising funds to support Palestinians.
Nikki Carreon, a Gen Z YouTuber from Orange County with over 400,000 subscribers, said she got the idea to start the initiative while watching X in the shower. She connected with some of her other content creator friends and the initiative snowballed. They wanted to make a big impact online and raise money, and Carreon had seen the success of Hasan Pikar, a political streamer who was fundraising on the Twitch platform.
“There are a lot of people who really want to do that. [get involved] “But we don’t really know what to do,” she said. “Livestreaming allows us to engage with them, not only spread the word but also reach people who can donate.”
Twitch is a live streaming platform that allows content creators to build and grow their audiences by streaming for hours on end. Originally popular with the gaming community, the app is now used by creators across a wide range of genres, just like other mainstream social platforms. Twitch streamers interact constantly while streaming, messaging back and forth constantly in Twitch chat.
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“Twitch has a unique ability to create a sense of community with a common purpose unlike other social media platforms,” says Pikar, a top Twitch streamer who broadcasts under the handle @hasanabi. “The interaction and constant back and forth is [between the streamer and their audience] This is what fundamentally sets livestreaming apart from anything else, and why Twitch is such an ideal platform for fundraising and activism.”
Stanji Potenza, a content creator in Los Angeles who helped organize the Creators For Palestine livestream, called Twitch “one of the better platforms for fundraising.” The platform integrates well with Tiltify, a fundraising platform favored by young influencers. Twitch’s interactive, community-driven nature also makes it more likely people will get involved in fundraising efforts. “We’re seeing a rapid shift in terms of online activism,” Potenza said.
“Twitch gives the viewer a microphone,” says Tyler Oakley, one of the first big YouTube stars who started on YouTube in 2007 and now streams full time on the platform. “I think being able to talk about current events and politics is really important, and the ability for viewers to have a say in the conversation. Sure, if you make a YouTube video, there will be comments, but on Twitch it’s a conversation.”
Hassan Kadeir, a content creator from Birmingham, Alabama, who helped organize Thursday’s stream and was one of several creators who flew in from around the country for the event, said the situation in Gaza has marked a turning point in the world of content creators, with creators who previously hadn’t spoken out politically and stayed in their own spheres now feeling comfortable being openly political and expressing their opinions.
“This event really brought together a lot of voices that wouldn’t have spoken out otherwise,” Kadea said. “Twitch is a place where people can speak freely. It’s more accommodating and open in that respect. There are so many people participating from different parts of the internet. The YouTube bubble has really changed the way we talk about Palestine. I think this movement will have a domino effect leading up to the upcoming elections.”
“I think this sets a precedent for what it means to be a content creator,” said Frederick Chen, a Los Angeles-based makeup, fashion, entertainment and arts content creator with more than 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube. “People want to follow creators who at least have an opinion on politics, because politics is a more important topic for our generation. There’s a higher standard.”
Faye Kanevsky, a Gen Z content creator in Los Angeles who makes videos about disability, said she wants to help online audiences understand how all these issues and events in the news are intertwined. “What’s happening in Gaza is a mass disability event,” Kanevsky said. “The pandemic is also a mass disability event.”
Jolie is a content creator who lives in Los Angeles and has more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok. The Washington Post is only sharing her first name to protect her privacy. She began streaming on Twitch about two months ago under the handle @alluringskull. She likes the fact that she can delve deeper into topics that are harder to cover in short videos on other apps.
“Creators who can build a community on Twitch can sit down and have deep conversations and challenge viewers who have been indoctrinated with very personal and simplistic views of what liberation looks like,” she says. “Twitch is the place to have the conversation, and TikTok is the place to post.” And I think it liberated people.”
Many creators said the mainstream news system flip-flops on political issues and rarely focuses on the people most affected by bad policies. “It used to be fashionable to hate on conservatives for being anti-mask, and now everyone’s anti-mask,” Jolly said, adding that she wants to work to stop the “popularization” of news reporting.
J. Aubrey, a 24-year-old Gen Z content creator with 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube, said he’s become more and more political on his YouTube channel over time, but that his political videos are no longer monetized.
Meanwhile, Twitch offers “a direct line to younger generations, like high school and college students, who might not otherwise watch the news. They can watch their favorite streamers talk about news and politics in ways that resonate with them.”
Rose Montoya, a transgender content creator from Los Angeles with more than 800,000 followers on TikTok, said she hopes the internet’s biggest creators continue to work together to bring about political change, and that she hopes this won’t be the last major collective action on Twitch.
“I hope this will make people with large platforms feel more comfortable speaking out about human rights issues around the world and the region at large,” Montoya said. “Hopefully we can continue to work together and shift our focus to Congo, Sudan, Pakistan. Personally, I see having a platform as a responsibility.”
