Twitch Bans President Trump Temporarily For "Hateful Conduct"
Donald Trump's campaign had a Twitch account, but it's been temporarily suspended due to hate speech.
Streaming service Twitch has temporarily suspended the account of President Donald Trump. Unlike some of the other recent bans it's handed out, it offered more specific reasoning for this move, perhaps due to the high-profile nature of the action. The company pointed to its policy on hateful conduct and even cited specific violations from past streams, which both involved the broadcast of Trump campaign rallies.
In a statement shared with GameSpot, a Twitch spokesperson said, "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." The length of the ban was not shared.
It also referred to its hateful conduct rules and provided the transcript for comments from the channel's streams that violate these rules. They are as follows:
- 2016 campaign rally, recently rebroadcast on Twitch: “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.”
- Tulsa Rally: “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.”
The move is somewhat unexpected given that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have been hesitant to take action against Trump's accounts. However, Twitch reiterated a statement it shared previously, saying, "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."
Twitch has begun taking action against a number of accounts recently, including Dr. Disrespect, although the nature of that ban--which is reportedly permanent--is still unclear. A number of other streamers accused of sexual abuse have also been suspended.
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