Twitch Removes Amazon's Anti-Union Ads Following Streamer Criticism

Twitch has pulled a series of anti-union ads its parent company Amazon ran on the platform. This comes after pro-union media organization More Perfect Union reported on the ads and streamers like Glam Shatterskull and Natasha "Zombaekillz" Zinda levied criticism against them.

According to More Perfect Union, the ads were to "scare its Alabama workers about unionizing." They're filled with talking points slamming unions, with employees saying there's "great leadership" at Amazon and that unions "just take your money" and do nothing with it. The ads encourage people, particularly Amazon employees, to vote no on unionization.

Twitch has responded to these ads running on its platform by removing them entirely. In a statement to Kotaku, a company spokesperson said the ads should not have run at all.

"Twitch does not allow political advertising, and these ads should never have been allowed to run on our service," a Twitch spokesperson wrote in an email. "We have removed these ads and are evaluating our review processes to ensure that similar content [like this] does not run in the future. We are grateful to our community for bringing this to our attention."

Various Twitch streamers have levied heavy criticism against the ads. Glam Shatterskull, for example, said they will no longer run ads on their channel. Zombaekillz claimed it's against their "personal ethics," while others lamented that Amazon running the anti-union ads was "heinous and beyond despicable" and urged followers to use adblockers on their channels.

These ads come as Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama are negotiating to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), a US labor union that advocates for fair and equitable workers' rights. Voting concludes on March 30, and it could become the first and only union after the Delaware warehouse's unionizing effort was rejected in 2014.

Furthermore, these ads are just another example of Amazon's stringent position on unionization. Reports claim that the company has plastered anti-union messaging across the Bessemer warehouse, as well as pestered its employees with anti-union texts attempting to sway opinions against unionizing by using a "#DoItWIthoutDues" social media campaign. It's worth noting that Bessemer is a mostly-Black city in Alabama, with that demographic making up approximately 72% of the population. The median household income there is $31,610.