Twitch (temporarily) bans Donald Trump’s channel

Over the past few days, Twitch has banned Dr. Disrespect and other popular streamers amid a social media campaign that outed users for sexual harassment and abuse.

On Monday, Twitch continued its crackdown, banning President Donald Trump from the popular livestreaming platform. But, the suspension wasn’t due to accusations of sexual assault, and the ban isn’t permanent — it’s a temporary suspension.

When reached for comment, a Twitch spokesperson said the company suspended Trump for breaking its rules on “hateful conduct.”

"Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “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."

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According to Twitch, one such violation was the result of a rebroadcast of a 2016 campaign rally where Trump said:

“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.”

Another violation was the broadcast of Trump’s recent Tulsa rally, his first 2020 campaign event since the U.S. coronavirus pandemic lockdowns:

“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.”

Both instances find Trump making disparaging, derogatory remarks about immigrants.

Twitch defines hateful conduct as “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.”

Twitch’s guidelines go on to note that any of the defined hateful conduct activity is deemed a “zero-tolerance violation."

This isn’t the first time Trump’s Twitch channel broke the company’s Community Guidelines. In fact, Trump ran afoul of those rules starting with the very first rally that aired on Twitch back when the channel launched in October 2019. However, it seems like this ban marks the first time that any action has been taken against the account.

“Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines,” Twitch said in a statement when the Trump campaign first created the channel last year. “We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules.”

Trump’s Twitch channel was banned on the very same day Reddit announced a slew of new policies which also saw the popular r/the_Donald subreddit permanently banned from its platform. One notable difference between the two bans, however, is that the subreddit community wasn’t set up by or formally involved with the Trump campaign.

Twitch would not divulge just how long the Trump account would be suspended for, but typically the company's temporary suspensions range from one to 30 days.

Trump has also recently seen action taken against his Facebook and Twitter accounts, too, for hateful content.

Twitch’s parent company is e-commerce giant Amazon. The company’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has frequently caught the ire of the President over the past few years. We now wait in anticipation to see if Trump will have anything to tweet about Bezos or Amazon over his Twitch ban.