Twitch Reinstates Donald Trump’s Channel After Three-Year Ban

Good news for Donald Trump if he was hoping to catch a livestream of the Evo 2024 tournament this weekend: Twitch announced Friday that it has reinstated the former president’s channel after banning him from the platform in 2021.

Just weeks after the “guardrails” on Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts were lifted, Twitch is also welcoming the Republican presidential candidate back Friday after he accepted the nomination at the RNC earlier this week.

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

“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.”

In total, Trump was barred from Twitch for three years, five months and four weeks, a ban that coincided with the January 6th riot at the Capitol. At the time of the ban, Twitch said it removed Trump’s channel due to “the President’s incendiary rhetoric” and that the suspension was necessary “to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.”

As of press time, there are no videos uploaded on Trump’s Twitch account — which has 142,000 followers — though the banner image has been updated to a 2024 rally photo.