Former President Donald Trump’s part in egging on the riotous mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6 has now earned him permanent bans from Twitter, Snapchat, Shopify and, most recently, Twitch.
On Wednesday, the live streaming platform for gamers announced that after disabling Trump’s account for two weeks following the violent uprising, it had decided to make the suspension permanent in light of Trump’s departure from the White House. In an email to The Verge, a Twitch spokesperson clarified that the decision to indefinitely ban the channel had been made in part due to “the ongoing risk of further incitement of violence.”
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. 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. 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. We will be updating our policies as a result of our consideration of this situation.
The removal offers Trump no chance to appeal the decision and no avenue to create a new account, unless Twitch decides to reverse the ban. Although the former president will not be able to stream from the account, the previously-used account page will remain active.
In addition to lifetime bans from Twitter and Snapchat, Trump’s role in the Capitol also prompted a flurry of sanctions from other social media giants, including a two week temporary bans from Instagram and Facebook and the removal of several videos by YouTube.
Twitch’s decision to ban the former president comes days after the platform made significant tweaks to its policies around harassment and hateful conduct, including updated guidance about words and phrases that are banned from the platform if they are used as insults.