Twitch lifts Donald Trump ban after suspending US president over 'hateful conduct'

The president was suspended from the platform for two weeks
Donald Trump's official Twitch channel has been unbanned after a two-week suspension
Unsplash/Caspar Camille Rubin, AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Donald Trump's official Twitch channel has been reinstated two weeks after it was taken offline for several instances of "hateful conduct".

Rather than using the platform like most gamers to stream Fortnite, Trump has been using his channel as part of his 2020 presidential campaign, broadcasting political talk shows called Team Trump Online and War Room Weekly.

However, on Monday, June 29, a ban was imposed on Trump's page over two instances of what the platform has deemed "hateful conduct".

The first report was after the channel live-streamed Trump's Tusla rally, which was the first public rally held since Covid-19 swept the nation. During his speech, Trump used racist language, referring to the coronavirus "kung-flu". At the same event, he also stated he'd asked health officials to slow testing down, in order to avoid the appearance of alarming case rates. A spokesperson later said Trump was "joking".

The second report was after the channel rebroadcast a 2016 rally where Trump was filmed saying that Mexico was "not sending their best", in reference to people entering the United States, going on to say that Mexico was "bringing drugs and crime. They’re rapists”.

According to the official Twitch guidelines and policies, the criteria for "hateful conduct" is defined by "any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on race, ethnicity, or national origin, religion, sex, gender or identity, sexual orientation, age, disability or medical conditions and veteran status, is strictly prohibited".

Twitch's guidelines further state that any hateful conduct is a zero-tolerance violation, with threats of indefinite suspension being one of the consequences.

At the time Trump was banned, Twitch did not state how long the ban would be in place, or whether it was permanent.

The ban was a temporary suspension issued for content identified as violating Twitch's community guidelines and that now Trump's channel is live again it will be subject to the same rules as before.

The streaming platform hasn't mentioned anything directly related to the Trump channel ban, apart from the statement it made when he first joined the Amazon-owned streaming platform.

"Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines,” Twitch said. “We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules".

When asking Twitch for a comment, The Standard Online was referred to the above statement regarding the issue.

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