Twitch has reinstated former President Donald Trump's account ahead of the 2024 presidential election after “indefinitely” banning it in 2021. The Amazon-owned company told TechCrunch on Friday that it reinstated Trump's channel because it believes “there is value in hearing directly from presidential candidates when possible.”
Prior to the ban, Trump's team had been using his channel to air parts of his election campaign, and now that the ban has been lifted, his channel can resume doing so.
Twitch joined many other tech companies in banning President Trump's account following the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, including Twitter (now X), Facebook and YouTube.
The change comes days after Meta announced that President Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts would no longer be subject to hardline suspensions. Meta's reasons for the decision are somewhat similar to Twitch's, as the company said it believes all presidential candidates should have an equal footing on its platform ahead of the presidential election.
Notably, YouTube reinstated Trump's account last year, and X reinstated it in 2022 under the new leadership of Elon Musk.
Twitch told TechCrunch it would lift the ban, but that Trump's account would remain subject to the company's community guidelines.
“We continue to enforce our Community Guidelines and take necessary enforcement action when we find violations of our rules,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Twitch does not have a 'celebrity policy,' so all channels are equally subject to our guidelines, regardless of whether they belong to a celebrity.”
Prior to the indefinite ban in 2021, President Trump's Twitch account was temporarily suspended in 2020 for broadcasting hateful content.