More than three years after Donald Trump was suspended over concerns he would utilize the platform “to incite further violence” following the January 6, 2001 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his far-right supporters, Twitch has reversed course and he restored his account.
“We have restored former President Trump’s Twitch channel,” a Twitch spokesperson said in a statement to PC Gamer. “We believe it is important to hear from presidential candidates directly, when possible. Trump is now the official Republican Party nominee for President of the United States.
“We continue to enforce our Community Guidelines and take appropriate enforcement action when we identify violations of our rules. Twitch does not have a ‘public figure policy,’ meaning that all channels are subject to our guidelines equally, regardless of whether the channel is owned by a public figure.”
That’s a gigantic change from January 2021, when Twitch said the President’s “inflammatory rhetoric” necessitated the suspension “to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.”
This was actually Trump’s second Twitch suspension: It also received a two-week ban in 2020 for violating Twitch’s policies against hateful conduct and harassment. The 2001 suspension was later extended “indefinitely” as Twitch said Trump’s statements “continue to be interpreted as calls to action.”
Facebook and Instagram also suspended Trump’s accounts in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that the former president had used the platforms “to incite a violent uprising against a democratically elected government” and that “the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our services during this period are simply too great.”
This suspension was lifted in 2023, although “more severe suspension penalties” were imposed to prevent re-offending; these penalties were taken off the table earlier this month, just before the Republican National Convention.
Twitch has not clarified whether the Trump campaign or some related entity requested the channel’s reinstatement or whether it simply did so proactively. As it stands, the reinstatement seems to have caught everyone by surprise: the channel is empty, and the background still features the elderly Trump/Pence 2020 banner. Mike Pence did not return as Trump’s vice presidential candidate in 2024, likely at least in part because House of Representatives Committee Investigation in the Capitol attack case, it was determined that Trump expressed support for Pence’s murder during the January 6 riot.
It is clear that Trump has not softened his rhetoric since his 2020 election loss. In an April speech reported Reuters Agencyfor example, he referred to immigrants in the US as “animals” and “subhumans.” Trump may not actually return to Twitch — his Twitter account It was reinstated by Elon Musk in 2022, but remains untouched as Trump has so far opted to stick with his own Truth Social platform — but if he does, and Twitch is stern about enforcing its social media policies, I think there’s a good chance he’ll be suspended again soon.
