"Stop Hate Speech" Reddit and Twitch Suspend Trump-Related Accounts One After Another

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] As social networking services (SNS) such as Twitter and Facebook face increasing pressure to actively address online hate speech, American online community company Reddit and game streaming platform Twitch have consecutively suspended accounts related to U.S. President Donald Trump.

On the 29th (local time), according to CNBC and others, Reddit shut down the 'The_Donald' forum, mainly used by Trump supporters, for violating its policies. Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, stated that communities and users who incite hate based on identity and vulnerability cannot use Reddit. As a result, it is reported that about 2,000 Reddit forums were closed.

On the same day, Twitch also suspended the official channel operated by Trump's re-election campaign. Twitch explained that the channel violated the code of conduct, stating, "Behavior that incites hate is prohibited on Twitch. According to the regulations, the use of President Trump's channel has been temporarily suspended, and offensive content has been removed." They judged that there were issues with past campaign videos of President Trump posted by the re-election campaign.

This move comes amid ongoing pressure from civil society on Facebook and Twitter regarding hate speech. Recently, following racial discrimination controversies, Twitter took active measures such as attaching warning labels or hiding posts related to President Trump's posts, while Facebook left them untouched. Enraged civil society then pressured major companies advertising on Facebook, leading to a series of advertising suspensions. Facebook belatedly shifted its stance, stating it would delete posts that incite violence or interfere with voting.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.