Twitch Suspends President Trump’s Account Due To Violating Hateful Conduct Policies
Streaming platform Twitch has suspended President Donald Trump’s account due to his purported violations of the platform’s rules against hateful conduct, Engadget reported.
Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, allows users to create their own content, not unlike YouTube or TikTok. However, unlike those two services, Twitch’s content is streamed live. Further, the platform generally focuses on video-gaming, although its content is not limited to just gaming.
Trump’s campaign joined Twitch in October 2019. At the time, the company made it clear that its rules applied to everyone, and that includes politicians.
“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,” the company said at the time.
Now, it appears the company has made good on that promise, temporarily deactivating the president’s account for two recent rules violations, one of which included words he spoke at his recent rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which he appeared to imply that Mexicans are criminals.
“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,” Trump said in that video.
Another video that Twitch flagged as violating its policies came from a Trump campaign rally in 2016, in which he famously tried to drum up support for his border wall with Mexico, making a similar suggestion that immigrants from the country are criminals.
In a statement, Twitch reiterated its rule that “hateful conduct is not allowed” on the platform, and said that, as such, the president’s account has been suspended until further notice, according to Business Insider.
It’s unclear, as of this writing, how long Trump’s Twitch account will be suspended.
The Twitch banning came just hours after popular message board Reddit closed down a popular forum known as “The Donald,” a pro-Trump forum the website accused of propagating hate speech, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.
Other major social media sites have also found themselves having to deal with what Trump either posts or is posted on his behalf. Twitter, for example, has attached warnings to some of his posts — including one that was aimed at George Floyd protesters — that the social media platform accused of glorifying violence.
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Facebook, by comparison, let the post stay, despite how it supposedly violated its own internal standards. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly called the president himself to ask him to tone it down, to no avail.
