Two weeks ago, Twitch suspended former President Donald Trump's official account following the attack on the U.S. Capitol. A representative said the action was necessary "to prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence" ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, and that the status of Trump's account would be reevaluated "after he leaves office."

Today is that day, and Twitch announced that Trump's account will not be reinstated due to its views on his continued behavior.

"Due to the continuing risk of inciting further violence, we have suspended President Trump's Twitch channel indefinitely. The President's remarks continue to be interpreted as a call to action and we are taking this action to eliminate the potential for harm to our community and the public," a Twitch representative said.

"Twitch has clear rules prohibiting hateful conduct, harassment, and incitement to violence on our service, and we consider events outside of our service when determining enforcement. However, the events of the past few weeks have highlighted a gap regarding rhetoric that promotes violence, whether delivered directly on Twitch or not. As a result of this situation, we plan to update our policy."

Twitch's policy on "account suspensions and chat bans" states that indefinite suspensions are limited to "the most egregious violations" and "no opportunity for appeal will be provided."

Twitch has taken more aggressive measures in recent months against moderation of content on the platform, including Confederate flags, blackface, unwelcome sexual comments, and the face of the original PogChamp, Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez by Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, has enacted a ban on the original PogChamp emote in response to his expressed support for the Capitol assailants.

However, questions about the willingness and ability to effectively enforce these policies persist, and the behavior of some viewers remains problematic. For example, the launch of a rotating PogChamp program aimed at highlighting the diversity of the creator community resulted in racist harassment and threats against streamer Omega "Critical Bird" Jones.

As for politicians, Twitch has increasingly become a platform for elected officials over the past few years, with U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in particular taking the lead on Twitch streaming in recent months. The attack on the U.S. Capitol that triggered Trump's first suspension was also a major Twitch event: a live stream of the riot by streamer HasanAbi attracted more than 225,000 simultaneous viewers.