It’s been two weeks since Reddit and Twitch made key moves to ban political content over service violations. As Twitch noted at the time, its suspension of the official Trump account was just temporary. Following earlier reports, the service confirmed with TechCrunch that the account had been reinstated.
A spokesperson for the company also reiterated its original statement on the matter, noting, “Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed.”
The suspension was triggered by two pieces of content. First there’s the campaign kickoff, which included the infamous line, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. […] They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
And then there’s the recent Tulsa rally, which included this bit, “Hey, it’s 1:00 o’clock in the morning and a very tough, I’ve used the word on occasion, hombre, a very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do.”
“Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines,” the service said at the time. “We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules.”
The move came amid the administration’s ongoing war with social media platforms like Twitter, which has included a call (and executive order) designed at revoking Section 230, which protects platforms from legal claims over user-generated content.
With rhetoric heating up both in rallies as well as Trump’s online media, it seems likely that history could repeat itself in the lead-up to the November election.
