Twitch Suspends Donald Trump's Account for Hateful Content

In a surprisingly political move by Twitch, the live streaming service has temporarily suspended the official Twitch account of United States President Donald Trump for hateful conduct.

Before you get your hopes up: no, he didn't stream Overwatch or anything like that. Trump would use the platform to broadcast his rallies and other related events.

His account was suspended yesterday, according to an automated Twitter account that monitors and posts about Twitch bans. After it came to light, Kotaku acquired a statement by Twitch, themselves.

Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our policies, President Trumps channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed.

The decision wasn't based on Trump's general behavior or content. They were able to cite two specific instances that go against their policies. The first was from a 2016 campaign rally that was recently re-broadcast on his channel. In it, he stated that Mexican immigrants were rapists. The second was from his recent Tulsa rally posing the hypothetical of a very tough hombre... breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away.

Twitch made a point to tell the Trump team that they will be held to the same Terms of Service as anyone else on the site when they had launched last year. They wanted to be clear that they will not grant exceptions for political content.

This is somewhat in contrast to a common community complaint, however. Many Twitch users have expressed a suspicion of bias regarding who Twitch bans and why, often casting a heavier hammer on male streamers compared to female streamers. At the same time, Twitch users also have a reputation for sexist behavior, so their complaints should be taken with a grain of salt.

Regardless, it's clear that Twitch is making a bigger effort to clean up their community. Dr Disrespect, one of the biggest (and most controversial) streamers on Twitch, was recently banned. And this time, it looks permanent.

Trump has not responded to this suspension at this time. It's also not clear how long the suspension will be.