US Army Is Off Twitch (For Now) After Backlash

The United States (US) Army will temporarily suspend its activities on the streaming platform Twitch due to negative backlash.

According to industry insider Rod “Slasher” Breslau, this move from the US Army comes after the overwhelmingly negative response to their activities on Twitch, which includes attempts of recruitment on the streaming platform and blocking anyone who even mentions war crimes in the channel’s chat section.

new: sources tell me due to recent media coverage of fake giveaways and potentially unconstitutional bans, the US Army esports team has paused social activity, streaming on Twitch, and official activations with Twitch including participating in upcoming Twitch Rivals events

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 22, 2020

Earlier today, reports claim that US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) will file an amendment against the US Army to prevent them from trying to recruit via video games, esports and related streaming platforms like Twitch.

As reported by Vice, a draft amendment was filed to the House Appropriations bill on 22 July 2020. If successful, this will stop the US Army from being able to “maintain a presence on Twitch.com or any video game, esports, or live-streaming platform”.

Despite everything’s that happening, Twitch apparently remains an official partnership with the US Army, according to Breslau.

this is only a temporary pause from the US Army’s side. Twitch continues to have an official partnership with the US Army and Navy

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 22, 2020

Let’s all never forget the ridiculous exchange between the official US Army and Discord Twitter accounts last month.

UwU 💕

— U.S. Army Esports (@USArmyesports) June 30, 2020