On January 6, protests in Washington, D.C. became violent as supporters ofDonald Trumpstormed the capitol building, with four people killed in the chaos. In the aftermath of this unprecedented incident, various Republican senators and other politicians distanced themselves from Trump, including his vice president Mike Pence. Despite this, Trump has continued pushing the false narrative that he actually won the election and Joe Biden’s win was fraudulent, prompting various social media services to take action.
Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook and Instagram, with the companies citing the potential for him to incite more violence if given a platform. Similarly, Twitter has been deleting some of Donald Trump’s tweets and limited his ability to tweet. And nowTwitchhas joined in, suspending Donald Trump’s account for an undetermined length of time.
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Speaking to Kotaku, a Twitch spokesperson specified that Donald Trump’s Twitch account was disabled due to the events that took place at the Capitol on January 6. Twitch stated thatTrump’s ban from the platformwas a “necessary step” to protect the community. Twitch does not want Trump to be able to use the streaming cite to “incite further violence.”
While Twitch did not specify how long Trump’s ban would be, it did say that the fate of his account would be reassessed after he leaves office. As it stands,Joe Bidenis expected to be inaugurated on January 20. Twitch hopes that by banning Trump from using the platform during this transition period, it will minimize any further damage that may be caused.
Twitch banning Trump is just the latest action that the streaming site has taken in light of the shocking events of January 6.Twitch removed the popular PogChamp emotefrom use in its chat due to its association with Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, who Twitch accused of inciting further violence during the D.C. riots. Twitch has said that it will be working with its community to create a new emote to replace PogChamp.
In the meantime, some people may be surprised to learn that Donald Trump even had a Twitch account at all, let alone that he’s now been banned. However, Trump did not use Twitch to broadcast gameplay or anything like that. For the most part, Donald Trump’s Twitch channel was used to broadcast his rallies. Other politicians have used Twitch in a more traditional fashion, such asAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who famously hosted anAmong Usstream with popular streamers.
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