The popular streaming website, Twitch, has temporarily suspended United States President Donald Trump's Twitch channel. Twitch has stated that the reasoning behind the ban is "hateful conduct" due to comments the POTUS made on stream.
While Twitch is primarily used by content creators to stream video games, President Trump uses the platform to live stream his rallies or important announcements. He is one of a growing number of politicians who are taking their campaigns to Twitch live streaming service. Trump launched his Twitch channel in October of 2019 and has since amassed over 120K followers. He averages more than 10K viewers per stream and streams under the politics category.
According to StreamerBans, a website that tracks when partnered Twitch streamers are either banned or suspended, Donald Trump's Twitch channel was reported as banned at 12 p.m. EDT on June 29. Shortly after, esports journalist Rod "Slasher" Breslau posted on Twitter to clarifying that Trump was not banned but had been temporarily suspended, but confirmed the news all the same. A statement was then provided to ScreenRant by a Twitch spokesperson which is as follows:
"Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed."
As the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump has had a number of controversial moments on social media. From his constant stream of unfiltered tweets posted to his personal Twitter account, to allegedly having tweets censored, to Reddit removing the r/The_Donald subreddit to protect the site from its frequent hate speech and site abuses. Reddit stated that the removal of r/The_Donald was due to the subreddit's community breaking the rules on harassment and targeting. The subreddit ban was the result of the actions of the community, but Trump's Twitch ban was the result of hateful comments made on stream by himself.
Twitch stated Donald Trump has been suspended for hateful comments made during two of his recent live broadcasts. The first was a recent rebroadcast of Trump's 2015 campaign kickoff where Trump is quoted saying, "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.”
The second offense was during a live rally in Tulsa were Trump stated, "Hey, it’s 1:00 o’clock in the morning and a very tough, I’ve used the word on occasion, hombre, a very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do. And you call 911 and they say, 'I’m sorry, this number’s no longer working.' By the way, you have many cases like that, many, many, many. Whether it’s a young woman, an old woman, a young man or an old man and you’re sleeping.”
Twitch Community Guidelines on Hateful Conduct
Hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability or serious medical condition or veteran status, and is prohibited. Any hateful conduct is considered a zero-tolerance violation.
These two comments serve as the reason for Trump's suspension. Twitch also released a statement, "Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules." Donald Trump has been temporarily suspended from Twitch, bu the length of his suspension remains unknown at this time.
Sources: StreamerBans, Rod Breslau