Massacre At A Synagogue In Germany Was Live-Streamed On Twitch

One day on a peaceful central German city of Halle, just outside of a synagogue, a gunman live-streamed a massacre that left two people dead.

In the video, the shooter that was wearing military fatigues a helmet camera, parked his car, to then used a submachine gun to shoot a woman near the synagogue where at least 80 people were praying.

Because he couldn't enter the building, he proceeded by throwing a grenade into a Jewish cemetery and left some explosives near the synagogue. He then shot another person after driving to a kebab shop, to then shot a taxi driver and his wife.

Speaking in English, the man called himself "anon", and said he was a Holocaust denier, as he ranted about feminism and immigration.

"Feminism is the cause of declining birth rates in the West, which acts as a scapegoat for mass immigration, and the root of all these problems is the Jew."

The video that was 35 minutes long, was live-streamed on Twitch.

Germany synagogue shooting
A screenshot of the video showing the shooting at a synagogue in Halle, Germany

The video was watched by "approximately five people" when it was live.

And after the recording was saved, the stream replay was then viewed by about 2,200 people "in the 30 minutes before the video was flagged and removed from Twitch."

According to Twitch:

"We are shocked and saddened by the tragedy that took place in Germany today, and our deepest condolences go out to all those affected. Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against hateful conduct, and any act of violence is taken extremely seriously. We are working with urgency to remove this content and permanently suspend any accounts found to be posting or reposting content of this abhorrent act."
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Twitch added that the gunman's account was created only two months prior of the shooting, and said that:

"This video was not surfaced in any recommendations or directories; instead, our investigation suggests that people were coordinating and sharing the video via other online messaging services."

"Once the video was removed, we shared the hash with an industry consortium to help prevent the proliferation of this content. We take this extremely seriously and are committed to working with industry peers, law enforcement, and any relevant parties to protect our community."

Germany synagogue shooting
Stephan Balliet, the gunman, when filming himself before the shooting where he denied the Holocaust, and ranted about feminism and immigration

This incident shows the growing problem that streaming platforms are facing: When people want to commit evil, they can broadcast their crimes to an audience using social networks. This in turn will amplify their reach, turning the evil deed into a viral phenomenon.

Twitch is known to be platform built for gamers to livestream their games while chatting to their audience. In this case, the shooter used this feature to livestream his hatred.

While Twitch removed the video, the footage had been downloaded by some people, and has started showing up on 4chan, some Telegram groups and others.

In the past, other companies have dealt with similar problems.

Facebook for example, dealt and struggled with the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, which claimed at least 50 lives. The company removed 1.5 million of the reshared and reuploaded videos in just 24 hours after being initially streamed.

YouTube, Twitter and Reddit also removed versions of the New Zealand livestream from their sites.

In the Germany synagogue case, it was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism. The suspect has been named as 27-year-old Stephan Balliet.