Twitch lifts indefinite ban on Donald Trump

By Gage Skidmore

On July 18, 2024, Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination for the 2024 United States presidential election. In light of the impact of the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, the video distribution platform Twitch had indefinitely suspended Trump's channel and account, but announced that it had lifted the indefinite suspension following his formal acceptance of the nomination.

Twitch lifts its ban on Donald Trump - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/19/24202095/twitch-lifts-donald-trump-ban

Below is Trump's Twitch channel page, which was released again. At the time of writing, the number of followers was 143,000.

Donald Trump - Twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/donaldtrump

During his presidency, Trump launched his own channel on Twitch in October 2019. The channel posted footage of Trump's supporters' rallies held around the country.

President Donald Trump opens a channel on Twitch - GIGAZINE

However, in June 2020, Trump was indefinitely suspended by Twitch following comments he made at a supporter rally.

Twitch temporarily suspends President Trump's official account - GIGAZINE

Furthermore, in January 2021, after protesters including Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, services such as Twitch, Facebook, and Shopify announced that they had immediately and indefinitely suspended Trump's accounts and channels.

Facebook, Twitch, and Shopify suddenly ban President Trump indefinitely - GIGAZINE

Meta subsequently lifted the limited suspension of Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram in January 2023. Furthermore, in July 2024, with the presidential election approaching, Meta announced that it would lift the authorization measures for the account restrictions imposed on Trump.

President Trump's Instagram and Facebook accounts will soon be unrestricted to ensure fairness among candidates in the 2024 election - GIGAZINE

A Twitch spokesperson told The Verge, an IT news site, 'We've resurrected former President Trump's Twitch channel. Now that Mr. Trump is the official Republican candidate for president of the United States, we believe it's worth hearing directly from the presidential candidate, if possible.'

The spokesperson added, 'We continue to enforce our Community Guidelines and take necessary enforcement action when we find violations of our rules. Because Twitch does not have a celebrity policy, all channels are equally subject to our Community Guidelines, regardless of whether the channel owner is a celebrity.'