Today, Twitch unbanned Donald Trump’s official channel. The Amazon-owned video game streaming site reversed the ban due to Trump’s status as the official Republican nominee in 2024’s presidential election, following the party’s convention earlier this week.
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On June 29, 2020, the then-current President of the United States’ Twitch account was temporarily banned over hateful conduct. However, on January 7, 2021, after the violent riot perpetrated in DC, Twitch made the ban indefinite, claiming it did this to “prevent” Trump from using the streaming service to “incite further violence.” However, after three years, five months, and four weeks, Trump’s official Twitter account is unbanned.
On July 19, as first reported by esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau, Twitch decided to reinstate Trump’s official account. Breslau shared this statement from Twitch on Twitter explaining the reversal of the ban:
We reinstated former President Trump’s channel. We believe there is value in hearing from Presidential nominees directly, when possible. Trump is now the official Republican nominee for US president.
When he was banned in June 2020, Twitch cited two instances of hateful rhetoric shared on his official streaming channel. One incident included the infamous moment during a 2016 rally, which was re-broadcast on the channel, where Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists.” Listening to Trump’s recent speeches, not much has changed, with the former President still spouting off hateful comments, easily refutable lies, and other nonsense nearly every time he speaks. But I guess that doesn’t matter anymore for Twitch.
Kotaku has reached out to Twitch about Trump’s return to the platform.
Twitch also told Breslau that Trump will have to play by the rules if he wants to avoid another suspension.
“Twitch doesn’t have a ‘public figure policy,’ meaning all channels are equally subject to our guidelines, regardless of whether the channel belongs to a public figure,” said Twitch.
Donald Trump, who recently survived an attempted assassination last week in Pennsylvania, has yet to update his Twitch channel. It currently still shows his old Vice President, Mike Pence, on the homepage.
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