Twitch lifts its ban on Donald Trump

Twitch has reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account after “indefinitely” suspending him following the January 6th, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol.

“We reinstated former President Trump’s Twitch channel,” a Twitch spokesperson, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, says in a statement. “We believe there is value in hearing from Presidential nominees directly, when possible. Trump is now the official Republican nominee for US president.” (Trump accepted the GOP nomination for president Thursday night.)

“We continue to enforce our Community Guidelines and take necessary enforcement action when we identify violations of our rules,” says the spokesperson. “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.”

In 2021, Twitch disabled Trump’s channel the day after the attacks before indefinitely banning him on January 20th “due to the ongoing risk of further incitement of violence,” a Twitch spokesperson said at the time.

Earlier this week, Meta dropped the restrictions it had placed on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts after reinstating those accounts in January 2023.