Twitch unbans Donald Trump: 'We believe there is value in hearing from Presidential nominees directly'

More than three years after suspending Donald Trump over concerns that he would use the platform "to incite further violence" in the wake of the January 6, 2001 attack on the US Capitol by his far-right supporters, Twitch has reversed course and restored his account.

"We reinstated former President Trump's Twitch channel," a Twitch spokesperson said in a statement provided to PC Gamer. "We believe there is value in hearing from Presidential nominees directly, when possible. Trump is now the official Republican nominee for US president.

"We continue to enforce our Community Guidelines and take necessary enforcement action when we identify violations of our rules. Twitch doesn't have a 'public figure policy', meaning all channels are equally subject to our guidelines, regardless of whether the channel belongs to a public figure."

It's quite a turnaround from January 2021, when Twitch said "the President's incendiary rhetoric" made the suspension necessary "to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence."

That was actually the second suspension of Trump's Twitch account: It had also been given a two-week ban in 2020 for violating Twitch's rules 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 wake of the January 6 attack. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that the former president had used the platforms "to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government," and that "the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great." 

That suspension was lifted in 2023, although "heightened suspension penalties" were imposed to help deter repeat offenses; those penalties were taken off the table earlier this month, shortly ahead of the Republican National Convention.

Twitch did not clarify whether the Trump campaign or some affiliated entity requested the channel's reinstatement, or if it just went ahead and did it proactively. As it stands, the reinstatement appears to have caught everyone by surprise: The channel is empty of all content, and the background image still contains the old Trump/Pence 2020 banner. Mike Pence did not return as Trump's running mate for 2024, possibly at least in part because the House Select Committee investigation of the capitol attack found that Trump had expressed support for Pence's murder amidst the January 6 violence.

What is clear is that Trump has not toned down his rhetoric since his election loss in 2020. In an April speech reported by Reuters, for instance, he referred to immigrants in the US as "animals" and "not human." Trump may not actually return to Twitch—his Twitter account was reinstated by Elon Musk in 2022 but remains untouched, as Trump has thus far opted to stick with his own Truth Social platform—but if he does, and if Twitch is serious about enforcing its community policies, I think there's a good likelihood it'll be suspended again in short order.