Following an attack on the US Capitol by far-right supporters of President Trump yesterday, the president's official Twitch channel has been suspended.
"In light of yesterday's shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump's Twitch channel," a Twitch spokesperson said. "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."
The rep clarified that Twitch is attempting to minimize harm leading up to the transition to a new administration, which will take place on January 20, and "will reassess his account after he leaves office."
(Twitch has also removed the PogChamp emote from the platform due to related comments made by the face of the emote.)
This isn't the first time that Trump's Twitch account has been revoked: In 2020, his account was suspended for two weeks for violating its rules against hateful conduct and harassment. But yesterday's events, which saw a mob of Trump supporters storm the Capitol building in response to the president's repeated, baseless claims that the election was stolen and resulted in four deaths and multiple injuries, caused a significantly wider and more visible backlash. Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts were also suspended today, and his Twitter account was temporarily locked.
This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.January 7, 2021
The response to the US president's behavior on social media comes with 13 days remaining in his four-year term.
Update: Trump's Twitter account was restored after the offending tweets were removed, but follow-up tweets posted on January 8 were determined to be in violation of Twitter's policies against the glorification of violence, and his account has therefore been permanently suspended.
Two tweets fell afoul of the rules:
- “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
- “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
"Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global conversation in regards to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks," Twitch explained.
"After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service."
