Twitch has banned Russian state media from stopping harmful spreaders of misinformation.
Amazon’s Twitch will block users who continue to propagate harmful misinformation both on or off its live video streaming website and will block Russian government media on the site as of Thursday, the company said.
Twitch, a popular site among video gamers, has said that the rules would ban users with an online presence committed to promoting widely discredited false information that has clear dangers of physical harm, such as conspiracy theories that encourage violence.
A Twitch spokesperson stated that the new policy would prohibit Russian State media outlets from having an online presence because the media had repeatedly disseminated misinformation from the service.
The spokesperson noted that Russian-owned media outlets weren’t featured on the site. However, it said it had removed one channel with very little activity.
It believed it had connections to the Russian state-controlled news agency RT.
RT announced earlier on Thursday that it will join the video website Rumble, which is very popular with U.S. conservatives, to overcome restrictions on the website by the major platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
The EU has issued sanctions against RT and Sputnik as Russia invades Ukraine. Moscow declares that their actions against Ukraine are a “special mission.”
Twitch announced that its new policy regarding “harmful misleading actors” will affect fewer than 100 channels upon its launch.
On April 1, the online streaming platform announced that it would suspend users who engage in behavior outside its website.
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