Twitch bans Donald Trump indefinitely while Facebook refers the case to Oversight Board

Trump cannot create another account on Twitch unless his suspension is lifted

Livestreaming platform Twitch has imposed an indefinite ban on former US president Donald Trump's account, citing an ongoing risk of violence following the Capitol attack earlier this month.

The move comes about two weeks after the Amazon-owned platform suspended Trump's channel following his encouragement of a pro-Trump mob's attack on the US Capitol.

At that time, Trump was barred from posting anything on Twitch, although his profile and archived videos were still available. The company suggested at the time that a final decision regarding the ban would be taken after the transition to the Biden administration was complete.

It now appears that Twitch is not much interested in lifting the ban.

In a statement to The Verge, Twitch said that it has "clear rules that prohibit hateful conduct, harassment, or incitement of violence on our service" and that it considers "off-service events when making enforcement decisions".

The company added that "the events of the past weeks have highlighted a gap with respect to rhetoric that encourages violence, regardless of whether or not it was directly streamed on Twitch."

"We will be updating our policies as a result of our consideration of this situation," it added.

Trump's Twitch account was suspended once previously in 2020 over rebroadcasting of many rallies which Twitch said violated its 'Hateful Conduct' guidelines.

Twitch is not the only social media platform to take strict action against the former US president following the Capitol Hill violence.

Facebook, Twitter and Snapchap have taken similar decisions against Donald Trump since 6^th January.

Twitter, which initially suspended Trump's account for 24 hours following the violence, announced later that it was permanently banning Trump's account. The company said that after assessing the language of two of Trump's tweets, it determined that they were in violation of Twitter's 'Glorification of Violence Policy'.

On Thursday, Facebook said that it was referring the decision to indefinitely suspend Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts to its independent Oversight Board for review.

Facebook's Oversight Board was established in 2020 to take final decisions on some of the most contentious issues. The decisions of the Oversight Board, whose members include former judges activists and media figures, are binding to all at Facebook, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and can't be overruled.

"The reaction to our decision shows the delicate balance private companies are being asked to strike," Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs and Communications for Facebook, wrote in a blog post.

"Some said that Facebook should have banned President Trump long ago, and that the violence on the Capitol was itself a product of social media; others that it was an unacceptable display of unaccountable corporate power over political speech."

"We have taken the view that in open democracies people have a right to hear what their politicians are saying - the good, the bad and the ugly - so that they can be held to account."

Facebook has also requested the board to give policy recommendations on account suspensions when the user is a political leader.

Trump's case will now be assigned to a five-member case review panel, which will share its findings with the entire board.

Trump will also be allowed to submit a user statement to the review panel. A final decision in this case will be issued after it is endorsed by a majority in the Oversight Board.