Twitch temporarily bans Trump campaign’s account

By Paul Squire Published June 29, 2020

In a surprise move, Twitch has temporarily suspended President Donald Trump’s campaign account, according to reports.

“Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,” the company said in a statement to Forbes. “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.”

Recommended Videos

The company reportedly cited comments Trump made during a 2016 rally that was rebroadcast recently, as well as remarks made at his recent Tulsa rally, as the offending content. During the 2016 rally, Trump said: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.” The rallies were streamed on the Team Trump account.

It is unclear how long the ban will remain in place.

A Twitch spokesperson did not respond to a request from Digital Trends for comment. We will update this story when we hear back.

The decision comes a week after Twitch announced a crackdown on offending accounts on its platform, following accusations of harassment by prominent streamers.

The move is also the latest by social media giants to rein in Trump’s comments. Twitter has flagged Trump’s tweets on multiple occasions for violations regarding “glorifying violence” and misinformation, while Reddit recently deleted the subreddit devoted to the president after years of abusive behavior that violatiedits user policies.

Facebook declined to moderate Trump’s posts, despite user and employee outcry and a widespread advertiser boycott. Facebook has since backtracked and now says it will flag content that violate its policies but is newsworthy enough to remain on the site.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Paul is the News Editor at Digital Trends. Before joining DT, Paul spent 3 years as an editor on the New York Post's digital…

Topics

Social Media

AI tools can quietly shift your opinions when they “clean up” your social media posts, study finds

A new study has found that AI tools consistently nudge social media posts in a particular direction, even when asked to preserve the original meaning.

Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

If you've asked an AI tool to help you write a social media post lately, you may have gotten more than a grammar fix. New research from the Oxford Internet Institute and the Hasso Plattner Institute found that AI models can push the tone of a post toward one side of a debate, even when told not to change its meaning.

How a chatbot's edits can shift the narrative

Social Media

I spend hours on YouTube Shorts, and these are the features I now can’t live without

YouTube

I’m an avid YouTube Shorts viewer. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not proud of it. But the doomscrolling habit has firmly taken hold, and at this point, I’m not sure there’s any way out.

That said, spending this much time on Shorts has also made me notice the little things that get in the way. I’ve never liked the dislike button or the bottom bar constantly popping up while I’m trying to watch videos. It’s an annoyance that adds up when you’re endlessly scrolling. Thankfully, that’s changed — and for the better. YouTube has introduced a couple of new features for Shorts that have genuinely changed the way I use the app.

Computing

As AI turbocharges digital abuse, UK agencies urge parents to limit who sees kids’ photos online

The National Crime Agency and Internet Watch Foundation are asking parents to tighten privacy settings as AI-generated abuse material rises.

Parents who post pictures of their kids online are being told to rethink the habit. The UK's National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation have issued new guidance urging families to lock down their social media accounts, warning that publicly shared photos are increasingly being pulled and altered by AI tools to create child sexual abuse material.

The two organizations say most parents have no idea this is happening. Criminals no longer need to contact a child directly to generate such material. They can scrape an ordinary photo and run it through widely available nudify apps.