The US Army has an esports section that streams regularly on the Twitch broadcast platform. It's in particular the occasion to give a good image of the US Army and to bring it closer to an audience, often young. However, it has rather gotten a negative publicity blow lately with two cases that have been talked about. After Donald Trump a few weeks ago, it's another American public figure who finds himself in difficulty on the streaming platform.
Fake prize giveaways that sent users to recruitment page
Journalist Jordan Uhl (The Nation) revealed that the US Army used fake giveaways during their streams to encourage enlistment in the military. A marketing technique that can be effective, but which is obviously reprehensible and dishonest. It would also seem that these accusations are true, since Twitch asked the channel to stop its false promotions .
Among the practices challenged, links in the chat that claimed to be able to win different prizes, such as an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. But these links, once opened, didn't lead to a contest or a draw... but directly on a recruitment form.
Twitch has pretty strict rules around giveaways. Among those which were not respected we find:
- The rules should be posted on the website and everyone should know them
- Prizes must be awarded according to the rules of a draw
- Competitions must have a start and end date
- Odds of winning must be communicated to participants
- There must be alternative solutions to enter the contest and purchases are prohibited
We will also add that to enlist in the army, you must be at least 16 years old in the United States. The affected audience on Twitch may turn out to be much younger, which also raises additional questions about the legality and morality of the proceedings.
A violation of the first amendment?
Everyone knows how much the Americans are attached to their constitution and don't like that the amendments are violated. However, it seems that the US Army's Twitch channel is violating the first of them, the one which guarantees freedom of expression. This is in any case what the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounces.
In the moderation of his chat, the channel would have been a little too heavy. Especially when viewers ask questions or write comments about war crimes and acts. The persons in question could thus be very quickly banished or deprived of speech.
If channels have the right to moderate their chat themselves, there are nevertheless rules to respect. The US Army has defended itself by describing these comments and questions as "harassment." An explanation which is however far from having convinced the critics.
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