How long will you get banned from Twitch for disparaging immigrants on multiple livestreams?
The answer is two weeks, apparently. That’s how long President of the United States Donald Trump was suspended on the platform.
The official Trump 2020 campaign Twitch channel is now back following two weeks of a temporary suspension for two separate instances of “hateful conduct” when broadcasting a stream.
According to Twitch’s policies, “hateful conduct” on the platform is defined as “any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability or serious medical condition or veteran status, and is prohibited.”
In late June, the Trump campaign had livestreamed the president’s return rally in Tulsa on Twitch. At his first rally since the coronavirus pandemic began in the U.S., Trump opined on a fictional story of a “very tough hombre” breaking into a young woman’s house when her husband was away.
The campaign’s Twitch channel also rebroadcast a 2016 Trump rally in which he infamously declared that Mexico was “not sending their best” people to the U.S.
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he said at the rally.
Twitch found that the racist comments Trump made on both streams broke the company’s “hateful conduct” rules, resulting in the two-week suspension. The Amazon-owned livestreaming company would not previously share how long the suspension would be for.
The real question, now: How long will Trump’s Twitch channel stay active until the next suspension? Furthermore, if the president’s account continues to break the platform’s rules, will the result be a permanent ban? Again, Twitch has not divulged what it would exactly take to ban a user for good.
In a statement shared when the Trump campaign first registered its Twitch channel last year, the company made it clear that, unlike other online media platforms, it would not treat politicians differently than any of its other users.
“Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines,” Twitch said. “We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules.”
Even with the suspension being temporary, Twitch’s reaction to the president’s statements is already stronger than those of many other social media platforms.
Twitter, for example, has started labeling Trump tweets containing false mail-in voting claims with a fact-check warning for spreading misinformation. Amid a barrage of criticism over inaction on violent rhetoric from Trump about Black Lives Matter protests and an advertiser boycott over hate on its platform, Facebook has also announced a few rule changes. The social networking giant plans to also label certain content that violates its policies but gets left up for “newsworthiness,” like Trump’s “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” post.
Trump is clearly a big fan of Twitter and his campaign has found Facebook to be an extraordinarily helpful hand in getting him elected. However, neither platform’s actions and rules changes have had much of an impact on Trump’s ways. It’s highly doubtful that a threat of additional suspensions from Twitch will do much to change him, either.
So, all eyes are now on Twitch and whether the company will take it to the next level — a permanent ban? — when the president inevitably breaks those hateful conduct policies once again.