Adin Ross has announced that aTwitchstream due to feature Kanye “Ye” West will not be going ahead in any capacity, even following a recent delay. Known for collaborating with celebrities from the entertainment industry, Ross had the opportunity to bring West onto hisTwitchplatform in what could have broken viewership records.
Kanye West has dominated the news cycle in recent months, which chronicled a continuous descent into increasingly antisemitic rhetoric and outbursts. Controversies surrounding West have propagated widely since the rapper wore a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat and publicly supported former President Donald Trump. Refusing to shy away from provocative acts, West wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt to Paris Fashion Week, but it was not until an antisemitic message he authored on Twitter that backlash became virtually universal. Since then, West has collaborated with white nationalists, Nazis, and other far-right figures, even making Info Wars host Alex Jones noticeably uncomfortable as he expressed love for Hitler. TheKanye West subreddit was subsequently inundated with educational Holocaustmaterial, including photos and stories of Jewish victims.
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A clip from a recent live stream was picked up by Dexerto, which summarized Ross' reasons for turning West down. Ross stated that “I can’t have my platform be used to spread hate,” and confirmed he had decided “not to go through with the stream.” He called out viewers offering their disappointment with “Ls in the chat,” and noted that “I know it would be my biggest stream ever,” but offered the caveat that “sometimes it’s not worth it.“Given that Ross has recently been swatted, it is understandable that the streamer would want to be careful regarding anything that could endanger him.
The potential for West to feature on Ross' Twitch stream sparked intense discourse on the platform, with political streamer Hasan Piker suggesting that West’s presence should in some way be moderated. A few claimed that if West received any pushback he would simply walk away, just like what happened during a conversation with Tim Pool when the YouTuber offered incredibly light criticism of West’s antisemitic statements. Furthermore, some may consider the justification offered by Ross as hypocritical given that he has frequently hosted Andrew Tate,a figure banned from social media sites such as Facebook and Instagramfor espousing misogynistic and reactionary views.
Piker, also known as Hasanabi, has closely followed West’s decline and was even banned last week for watching an interview of the rapper conducted by Gavin McInnes, a far-right figure who founded the Proud Boys. McInnes' subscription-based media platform Censored.tv seemingly filed a copyright claim against Piker, butTwitch reversed the ban approximately 24 hours later, likely believing that the claim was made in bad faith given that countless other streamers watched the same content without consequence.
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