Streaming service Twitch has been trying to clamp down on hateful speech, abuse and other problematic behavior on its platform. But a very unexpected suspension has just been handed out. US President Trump has been suspended from the streaming site temporarily.
This is by no means the first time that President Donald Trump has tried to use gaming to push his hateful agenda. The President previously attempted to weaponize imports from China during his “trade war” which included board games and other nerdy items. Trump also weakly attempted to force change in the gaming industry over violence. Echoing the same hollow moral panic of the 1980’s around music, he attempted to blame games for a link to violence that is infamously disputed.
And there can be no uncertainty here, what President Trump says is racist. It’s key to understand that these remarks were made during the announcement speech for his presidential campaign in 2015. And later led to the genesis of the “We will build a wall” promise that became a pillar of his undeniably aggressive and intentionally bigoted campaign. And also informed his policy decisions to this day.
Providing the following statement on the ban, Twitch said “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” with the suspension stemming from the rebroadcast of a 2015 speech in which President Trump said that Mexico was purposefully “not sending their best”, saying that “they’re rapists” and that they are being sent into the United States. The remarks were met with harsh criticism at the time.
The full remarks that likely caused the temporary ban are as follows:
“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.”
Less than a month later, in the media firestorm that followed, Trump doubled down by equivocating and reinforcing his racist point:
“What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.” He said during a statement on July 6, 2015.
No statements have been made as of yet about the suspension. But we can be sure that a Twitter rant about conservatives being silenced is incoming from Trump.
