Twitch lifts ban on Trump’s account: “It’s valuable to hear from presidential candidates”

The ban on former US President Donald Trump’s Twitch account was lifted today, the company announced.

Trump’s Twitch account was suspended indefinitely following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. However, three and a half years later, the company is reinstating the account because Trump is the official Republican presidential candidate for 2024.

This news was originally shared by respected insider and reporter Rod “Slasher” Breslau, who wrote in a July 19 tweet that Twitch told him it was “valuable” to give presidential candidates a platform and “hear directly from them.” Now that Trump has been officially nominated by the Republican Party, Twitch is taking steps to correct its previous decision, which was made due to a “continued risk of further incitement of violence.”

As things stand, Donald Trump’s official Twitch channel has been unbanned and is fully functional. It hasn’t uploaded, streamed, or done anything of the sort, and it looks exactly the same as it did in 2021. If this reinstatement follows a similar trajectory to Trump’s unbanning of X (formerly Twitter), the former president may refuse to participate in the platform after being suspended from it indefinitely. Since being removed from most major social media platforms, he has primarily used his own so-called Truth Social to communicate.

Twitch has also reiterated that Trump’s account is subject to the same rules as all others and that the company does not have a “public figure policy” that protects certain people from community guidelines. The account is “policed ​​the same as any other,” Slasher said, and will not enjoy any privileges.