Twitch, a streaming platform popular with gamers, disabled President Donald Trump’s account Thursday.
“Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence,” said a spokesperson in a statement.
Twitch joined e-commerce platform Shopify in giving the outgoing president the boot following a violent riot in the Capitol done in his name Wednesday. Four people died and American lawmakers were locked down as supporters of the president roamed the halls and took photos in officials’ offices.
Facebook and Instagram also “indefinitely” suspended Trump’s accounts earlier Thursday.
All companies pointed to his encouragement of his supporters to descend on the nation’s capital ahead of Wednesday’s joint session of Congress, which was meant to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden. Trump has baselessly insisted for two months that Biden’s win in the 2020 election is attributable to widespread voter fraud.
Ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled vote — which was postponed amid the riot and ended up taking place overnight, in the early hours of Thursday morning — numerous Republican lawmakers announced their intention to align themselves with Trump and object to the certification.
On Wednesday night, Twitch did away with its popular PogChamp emote following encouragement of violence from its inspiration, streamer Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez.
“We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today,” said a statement on the platform’s Twitter account. “We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself- and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image. We will work with the community to design a new emote for the most hype moments on Twitch.”