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by IANS |
Washington, Oct 11 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has launched a channel on Amazon's Twitch live streaming platform aimed at promoting his 2020 re-election campaign.
A spokeswoman for Twitch, a platform popular among videogame players, confirmed on Thursday the channel belonged to Trump, though it couldn't be immediately determined when the page was launched, Efe news reported.
The President, who held a campaign rally in Minneapolis on Thursday night, streamed the event live on the channel.
The move comes after Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also created a Twitch channel in June. Sanders has streamed videos of campaign rallies and other content on his channel, which has about 88,700 followers.
Politicians aren't allowed to buy or sell advertising on Twitch, a company spokeswoman said. They can, however, direct viewers to make donations elsewhere, such as through PayPal.
An average of 1.3 million people are on Twitch at any given moment and the platform sees more than 15 million daily visitors, the company said. Most people come to Twitch to watch other people play videogames and participate in esports competitions.
Though Trump launched a channel on the gaming-centric site, he has previously criticized violent videogames as helping fuel some of the mass shootings that have occurred in the US in recent years.
Last year, he held a meeting at the White House after the massacre of 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, to discuss the matter with members of the videogame industry and groups opposed to violent games.
The channel debut also comes as Twitch is facing scrutiny after earlier this week a shooting suspect live streamed the killing of two people outside a synagogue in Germany, adding Amazon to the list of tech giants that have had to tackle violent acts being broadcast online in real time.
Amazon bought Twitch for around $970 million in 2014 and it doesn't break out revenue for Twitch in financial reports. Twitch is free for users and generates revenue mainly from selling advertising.
Amazon's chief executive is Jeff Bezos, whom Trump has repeatedly criticized over taxes, the company's use of the US Postal Service and its effect on other retailers. Trump also called the Washington Post, which Bezos owns personally, a lobbying arm.
