After continuously tweeting in seeming support of the riots at the US Capitol building, President Donald Trump was suspended from his favorite social media platform. That was followed by an indefinite ban from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and now Twitch.
The streaming platform stated that Trump’s Twitch channel had been disabled following the “shocking attack on the Capitol.” This was due to the American president’s chosen language in response to the violence and destruction.
“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,” a Twitch representative stated.
On Wednesday, pro-Trump protesters gathered in Washington DC for a “Stop the Steal” demonstration in response to Joe Biden winning the presidential election and Democrats taking back the majority in the United States Senate. It quickly turned into a riot when people started climbing walls and storming their way into the US Capitol building. Four people ended up dead, and questions were quickly raised over the police response to the rioters.
Twitter and Twitch suspend President Trump’s accounts
In response to the chaos, President Trump shared a video on Twitter addressed to the protesters at the US Capitol. He told the participants to “peacefully go home.” But the video only added fuel to the fire as Trump continued to share unproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. He didn’t denounce his supporters’ violent reactions to these claims.
“We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now,” Trump said.
The video was eventually pulled. The social media platform then suspended his account.
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy. https://t.co/k6OkjNG3bM
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
“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.”
According to Twitter Safety’s official account, Trump’s account is currently locked for 12 hours. The account will remain locked for longer if Trump’s team doesn’t remove tweets made in “severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.”
“Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of Trump’s account,” Twiter stated.
Twitch stated that Trump’s channel will remain blocked until the end of his presidency.
