Botez sisters come under fire for seemingly defending slavery in Dubai

Twitch stars Alexandra and Andrea Botez have come under scrutiny from the internet for allegedly "defending slavery" in Dubai during a recent Q&A session.

The Botez sisters, dubbed the “chess queens” of Twitch, are currently on a world tour during which they are playing against players from around the globe. The two sisters initially went to Paris, followed by England and Norway.

Currently, the Botez sisters are in Dubai, where they recently held a live Q&A session on their Twitch channel. The two sisters have been accused of defending "modern slavery" in Dubai, which exists in the form of foreign laborers made to live under sub-humane conditions.

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Botez sisters get accused of defending Dubai’s “foreign labor” slavery

The Botez sisters were in the middle of a Q&A session when they were asked about their views about the negativity that surrounds Dubai in developed countries. Dubai has come under severe scrutiny due to the existence of around 250,000 foreign laborers who, according to WHO, are made to live in sub-humane conditions under strict contract terms.

The clip made its way to the popular Reddit page "LivestreamFail", but was quickly taken down. A mirror link to the video can be found here.

The existence of the modern form of slavery has come under special attention due to the 2022 Soccer World Cup that is scheduled to take place in Qatar. Alexandra Botez responded in a hugely controversial manner, although the sisters did not defend slavery per se.

Instead, they accused developed countries of criticizing Dubai about things that previously existed in their countries as well. Alexandra Botez said the following:

"Here is all I am trying to say. We are in Dubai so we are not gonna say anything in particular about the country. The only thing that bothers me is when people from the first world or developed countries, s**t on developing countries for doing things that those developed countries also did in the first place. It’s just you know, a little bit of ignorance, that's all. Not to say we support it.”

Hence, as the clip also suggests, Alexandra Botez merely spoke against people from first-world countries who criticized developing nations. The USA abolished slavery back in 1865, and hence it is not a recent phenomenon that people do not have the right to speak against. So while Alexandra Botez obviously made comments that came across as tone-deaf, she did not defend slavery per se.

The r/LivestreamFail post garnered a lot of attention from fans, who commented:

The post is filled with criticism, and for now, it seems the Botez sisters might have to address it sooner rather than later.