Twitch bans Trump accounts for 'hateful conduct'

Twitch said that it does not 'make exceptions for political or newsworthy content'

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Video game streaming platform Twitch has confirmed that it has suspended the channel of Donald Trump for “hateful conduct”.

Mr Trump’s accounts were used to stream previous presidential rallies. This includes a broadcast of a 2016 campaign event in which Mr Trump claimed Mexico is responsible for an influx of drugs and crime in the US.

Another broadcast was of a recent rally in Tulsa where he described a criminal breaking and entering into a woman’s house as a “very tough hombre”.

A Twitch spokesperson said the changes were temporary, though did not indicate how long it would last, and pointed to a host of problem content on its site.

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

Mr Trump’s Twitch channel began steaming in October, and has gained more than 125,000 followers over 113 streams.

This is significantly fewer than the 83 million followers the president has on Twitter.

The full statements which violated Twitch's terms were when Mr Trump said during his 2016 campaign: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.”

At the Tulsa rally, Mr Trump said: “Hey, it’s 1:00 o’clock in the morning and a very tough, I’ve used the word on occasion, hombre, a very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do. And you call 911 and they say, 'I’m sorry, this number’s no longer working.' By the way, you have many cases like that, many, many, many. Whether it’s a young woman, an old woman, a young man or an old man and you’re sleeping.”

Unlike Twitter, which has repeatedly made exceptions for content posted by the president that violates its rules based on its “newsworthiness,” Twitch said that it does not “make exceptions for political or newsworthy content”.

The news comes as social media companies have been recently taking action against right-wing accounts that violate their policies.

Reddit banned the community r/The_Donald for repeatedly breaking its rules, something the company has avoiding doing for years. The page has become a hub for white nationalist and racist content.

However, it also banned the community around left-wing podcast Chapo Trap House, also for reasons pertaining to rule-breaking content.

Other social media companies are also taking some action against actions by Mr Trump that violates their rules.

Facebook said it would start labelling inflammatory posts from the president, however this decision was only taken following a mass boycott from advertisers.

Previously, CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg had said the company did not want to be an “arbiter of truth”.

Twitter infamously added contextual labels to the president’s tweets, which has resulted in an attempt by Mr Trump to curtail the liberty of all website owners – large or small – by changing Section 230.

Section 230 protects any website or service that hosts content – including news outlets' comment sections, video services like YouTube and social media services like Facebook and Twitter - from lawsuits over content posted by users.

Changing such legislation would make companies liable for all user-made comments on its website, including defamatory or libellous comment that the companies currently do not have to take legal responsibility for.