Twitch Suspends Trump For ‘Hateful Conduct’ on Same Day YouTube Bans David Duke, Stefan Molyneux, Richard Spencer

By Leia IdlibyJun 29th, 2020, 5:02 pm
 

Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

Streaming service Twitch suspended President Donald Trump’s account for “hateful conduct” on Monday, while Youtube banned several channels including those of David Duke, Stefan Molyneux, and Richard Spencer. 

“Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch,” a Twitch spokesperson told Mediaite of the Trump suspension. “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.”

The streaming service sent a statement to Trump’s team when the president’s channel was started last year, which read, “Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules.”

The streams in question include a rebroadcast 2015 campaign speech, during which Trump claimed Mexico was sending rapists, drugs, and crime into the United States, and several comments made during Trump’s recent Tulsa rally.

Twitch, owned by Amazon, has clear guidelines on “hateful conduct and harassment,” including, “Twitch will consider a number of factors to determine the intent and context of any reported hateful conduct. Hateful conduct is a zero-tolerance violation. We will take action on all accounts associated with such conduct with a range of enforcement actions, including and up to indefinite suspension.”

Youtube has also banned several prominent users and channels for “hate speech” on Monday, including Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK, neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist Spencer, and Molyneux, a far-right white nationalist podcaster.

Molyneux also had 300 million total views on Youtube before his ban, and has been cited as former white supremacist Cabel Cain’s introduction into the far-right world.

YouTube began suspending and banning supremacist channels last year after the company issued rules prohibiting “videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.”

“We’ve been taking a close look at our approach towards hateful content in consultation with dozens of experts in subjects like violent extremism, supremacism, civil rights, and free speech,” the statement adds.

Spencer claimed on Twitter that he would “appeal the suspension.”

Molyneux also took to Twitter to criticize Youtube’s decision to ban him:

Twitch and Youtube’s decisions follow Reddit’s crackdown on hate speech, which included a ban of their site’s biggest pro-Trump message board. 

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