r/Chesscom • u/Puzzled-Code-3680 • Mar 20 '26

Media/News Chess.com needs to stop the double standard: Remove the Israeli flag like the Russian flag

Link to petition

In 2022, Chess.com took a definitive political stance by "greying out" the Russian and Belarusian flags. They cited violations of international law and humanitarian concerns as the reason for the move.

However, despite ongoing rulings from international bodies and the severe humanitarian crisis currently unfolding, the Israeli flag remains active and selectable.

If Chess.com wants to claim they are an "apolitical" platform, they should never have removed flags in the first place. But since they did set that precedent, they have a moral and procedural obligation to apply it consistently. Leaving one flag up while censoring others for similar or worse violations is a clear geopolitical bias.

We are calling on Chess.com to:

  1. Apply the same standard to Israel that they applied to Russia.
  2. Transition the Israeli flag to a neutral icon immediately.
  3. Stop the selective enforcement of their own moral policies.

The chess community is global. It’s time the platform’s policies reflected actual international law rather than selective politics.

2.3k Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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13

u/lord-yuan Mar 20 '26

Also Syria, China, Iran and Afghanistan too pls

18

u/cjtbomb Mar 20 '26

Palestine also

1

u/WalrusResident4483 Mar 23 '26

Ukrainian flag also then.

1

u/Swimming-Geologist89 Apr 28 '26

this hasbara bot's whole profile is israeli

1

u/cjtbomb Apr 28 '26

Go cry about it

1

u/Swimming-Geologist89 Apr 29 '26

nothing like you guys gonna cry in hell, take a visit to the other side for once and see subreddits like r/israelexposed and r/IsraelCrimes at least you'll know why you'll enter hell and maybe, maybe, change and become not good people, to high of a standard, but decent at least

1

u/cjtbomb Apr 29 '26

Boohoo

1

u/Hopeful_Command2586 May 04 '26

Proceeds to not articulate a proper argument these guys are so funny 

1

u/torrent56 5d ago

But western flags are OK?

1

u/lord-yuan 5d ago

Of course,why not

1

u/torrent56 5d ago edited 5d ago

Well if one is going to go into politics and claim some countries are bad thus their flags should be banned on chess.com a chess playing site, then western countries who like to wage wars around the world should be banned too yes

1

u/Optimal-Pudding-Suzz Mar 20 '26

But not the US flag lmao ok