How the US Army is using Twitch for recruitment

As if 2020 wasn’t weird enough already, the world’s largest military has decided to move into streaming video games. The US Army, Navy and Air Force all launched Twitch channels with the perceived purpose of recruiting young people to join the military through outreach and what some call propaganda. 

Of course, there is nothing illegal about the military finding fresh ways to market themselves: they already produce high-budget recruitments adverts for television, but the veiled nature of this campaign is particularly concerning. Twitch allows viewers as young as thirteen to engage in streams through the chat: viewers that are too young to enlist. But children, (and they are children) are impressionable. Being subjected to a one-sided positive message of the military can instil a lifelong belief that is difficult to counterbalance with the hard truths about war and military service. This is especially true in the United States, where the military is almost venerated by American society. 

Aside from the sociological consequences, the US Army Esports Twitch channel is now the centre of a legal dispute surrounding the moderation of its user chat. Concerned citizens, hoping to create a balanced discussion, have raised questions about US war crimes throughout its history, only to be slapped with a ban from the chat for daring to do so.

By banning users from the chat, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) believes the US Army team may have violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution

This policy was also taken to the US Army Esports Discord server, where users were being banned so fast, it became a challenge to see how fast someone can get banned from the server. These hilarious antics may have revealed a much more serious problem with the army’s behaviour. Generally, Twitch channels are free to moderate their chats as private communities, but as the army is part of the US government, it has the constitutional obligation to allow free speech. By banning users from the chat, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) believes it may have violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution. 

The case is still ongoing, but there have been calls for Twitch to disable the channel’s ability to ban users, which it has refused to do. I think this is fair: it is not the role of private organisations to ensure the government upholds freedom of speech, that is for the courts to enforce. 

One area where Twitch has slapped the channel on the wrist is its deceptive giveaways. During live streams, the channel sends out links to a supposed controller giveaway which actually redirects to the army’s recruitment page.  

The story doesn’t end there. At the end of July, the army confirmed that it had paused streaming to “to review internal policies and procedures” according to a spokesperson. This was after Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed an amendment to this year’s Department of Defense Appropriation Bill, that would ban the military from using Twitch as a recruiting platform. Unfortunately, her colleagues in the House voted against the amendment 292-126, with her fellow Democrats siding with the Republicans. Regardless, the very threat of defunding has woken up the US Army’s leadership, who have reinstated access to banned accounts for supposedly “harassing and degrading behaviour” (a.k.a. talk about war crimes). 

It was clear from the start that a nation’s military streaming video games on the internet in a recruitment drive was always going to be controversial. But as government entities tend to do, they made the situation worse for themselves through some poor and potentially illegal decisions. 

UPDATE: Since this article was written, the US Army has begun streaming on Twitch again. No accounts are being banned from the chat, which is filled with comments on war crimes, politics and the United States in general.