Twitch suspends Trump account indefinitely

Twitch, the popular livestreaming app, has indefinitely banned former President Trump’s account, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.

“We have indefinitely suspended President Trump’s Twitch channel due to the ongoing risk of further incitement of violence,” reads a statement from Twitch, which was released to The Hill after President Biden was sworn into office.

“The President’s statements continue to be interpreted as calls to action, and we are taking this action to remove the potential for harm to our community and the general public,” it adds.

The statement goes on to explain how the former president’s actions violated the streaming site’s policies.

“Twitch has clear rules that prohibit hateful conduct, harassment or incitement of violence on our service, and we consider off-service events when making enforcement decisions,” it reads. “However, the events of the past weeks have highlighted a gap with respect to rhetoric that encourages violence, regardless of whether or not it was directly streamed on Twitch.”

The company vowed to change its regulatory measures following the recent events. 

“We will be updating our policies as a result of our consideration of this situation,” it said.

According to Twitch’s current policies, an indefinite suspension happens only in the most “serious” cases and doesn’t allow for any kind of appeal. 

Twitch initially took action against Trump’s channel on Jan. 7, following the deadly Capitol riot, when the company joined the movement of social media sites that were banning Trump’s accounts.

Twitch followed suit with its parent company, Amazon, which banned pro-Trump conservative networking site Parler from its web-hosting service earlier this month, by disabling Trump’s channel.

At the time, Twitch released a statement that said, “In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel. Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.”