Protest Was In The Air At This Year’s TwitchCon

TwitchCon took place in San Diego over the weekend, and though I was not able to attend this year, I can confirm that at least one grand (read: regrettably necessary) tradition was alive and well: protest. Following a Marriott hotel workers’ strike that was the talk of the event in 2018, TwitchCon 2024 was the site of two separate protests: one in favor of a better contract for workers at a different hotel, the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, and another against TwitchCon itself over a sponsorship deal with Chevron, which continues to support Israel to the tune of millions of dollars.

Creators posted videos and images of both protests, with some in favor and others opposed, confused, trolling, or, when it came to the pro-Palestine assembly, a bizarre combination of the three. A few smaller streamers, like Bret "Cinemarxism" Hamilton and Austin "Gremloe" MacNamara, spent time with protesters of both causes and advocated for them (the latter also covered pro-Palestine protests at the Democratic National Convention last month). 

Some creators took Hilton protesters’ side despite being inconvenienced personally. Culinary influencer Tricia "Triciaisabirdy" Wang, for example, tweeted at Hilton Hotels that she hadn't "slept in days" because protesters would "start chanting and banging drums outside my room" every single morning. Then she proposed a solution: "Give them a raise."

As for Chevron, protesters from San Diego’s BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement lined up just outside the convention center and shouted things like “TwitchCon, TwitchCon, you can’t hide, you’re sponsored by genocide.” Chevron’s presence at TwitchCon is unfortunate, but far from unprecedented. Last year, Chevron had its own booth at the show, while Shell threw money at Fortnite streamers in an apparent effort to win over a younger crowd that’s skeptical of fossil fuels and fearful of climate change. Difference is, back then Chevron had yet to spend nearly a year aiding and abetting a genocide, though it had already by that point helped fuel Israel’s apartheid state.

Chevron is not even remotely the first to target Twitch as a means of whitewashing crimes against humanity; both the US Army and Navy have sponsored and streamed on Twitch, going so far as to ban viewers for asking about war crimes in chat.  

After speaking with members of the San Diego BDS movement, one streamer, WitchyTwitchy, decided to lend support from inside the convention.

"I'm here at TwitchCon paying a visit to TwitchCon's deadliest sponsor this year, Chevron," she said in a video filmed in front of Chevron's booth. "Chevron is literally fueling, via gas and money, the genocide in Gaza. I'm a Twitch streamer, I love coming to TwitchCon, and I understand that sponsors are needed, and it may be hard to find an ethical sponsor from a big corporation. But the least we can do is maybe ask Twitch to not get sponsored by a company literally fueling genocide – especially when Twitch is a company that claims to value diversity and inclusion. I would like to remind them that Palestinian streamers are also on their platform, and maybe [they should] not get sponsors that are killing their families."