Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez moves to stop US military using Twitch for recruitment
Things are all quiet on the US Army Esports Twitch channel - for now - after several weeks of backlash and damaging headlines. The US Army, Navy and Air Force have all come under fire for using esports Twitch channels as recruitment tools, and after some viewers were banned for discussing American war crimes in Twitch chat, lawyers argued the bans were unconstitutional and potentially violated viewers' First Amendment rights. A report for The Nation then found the Army had been advertising fake giveaways that actually redirected to a recruitment form, a practice that Twitch eventually forced the Army to stop.
It's been two weeks since the US Army Esports channel uploaded anything, but if it was hoping to bunker down and wait for everything to blow over, it might have a shock in store, as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced a measure that could block the military from using video game platforms for recruitment.
As reported by Vice, a draft amendment filed to the House Appropriations bill yesterday seeks to "prohibit the use of funds for recruiting via video gaming and esports platforms".
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