Twitch has stepped in to stop the US Army using fake rewards on its esports channel to redirect viewers to the Army’s recruitment pages.
The practice was brought to light by a report by The nation on the use of electronic sports as a recruitment tool by the United States Army. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, all active and reserve field sports teams that broadcast on Twitch and chat with young viewers about life, video games, and the opportunities it offers military service.
“Electronic sports are just one way to start a conversation,” said Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, head of the army’s recruiting command. ThinkTech Hawaii Recently. “We go out and have a shared passion for eSports … and it naturally turns into a conversation, ‘What are you doing?’, ‘I’m in the military.'”
This scope included automatic links in the Army broadcast chat that told viewers they could win an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller in a “giveaway.” But when someone clicked on the link, it says The nation, they were directed to “a recruitment form with no further mention of a contest, odds, total number of winners or when a draw will occur.”
Viewers, streamers and game developers reacted angrily to the news, saying any other channel would have repercussions for such behavior. Twitch itself has now apparently forced the military to stop these gifts, according to a report by Kotaku.
“Under our Terms of Service, promotions on Twitch must comply with all applicable laws,” said a spokesperson for the streaming site. Kotaku. “This promotion did not meet our Terms, and we have required them to remove it.”
In addition to bogus awards, the Army’s Twitch broadcast is also in trouble for potentially violating the first amendment after banning viewers who asked recruiters what their favorite U.S. Army war crime was.
Although Twitch allows streamers to moderate their channels as they see fit, any government-organized public forum, including those online, must follow strict freedom of expression rules. This was established last year when a federal court ruled that President Donald Trump cannot block his critics on Twitter.
“As a general rule, as established in our case against Trump, whether a government agency or branch of the military operates a social media platform or website, and allows people in general to post comments that would normally be considered a public forum, “Katie Fallow, lead attorney for the Knight Foundation, said Vice. “If the military runs the Twitch channel is a public forum, then removing comments or blocking people from commenting based on their views, such as asking about military crimes, would violate the first amendment.”
