Following the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, several social media platforms have decided to suspend the accounts of the outgoing US president. Besides Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, streaming platform Twitch has suspended Trump’s account, citing his potential to incite further violence if given a platform. Due to these decisions, a social media power vacuum has been created, and an unlikely challenger from the Hearthstone community has emerged to fill the void, albeit reluctantly.
Pro Hearthstone player and streamer Jeffrey “Trump” Shih has experienced a flood of Twitter followers who may have mistaken him for the US president. He tweeted about this development, clearing up his identity as a player of Blizzard’s card game and not as a politician.
Shih’s social media accounts and activity are currently trending, with his tweet having more than 172 thousand likes as of this time of publication. The former Starcraft II pro has not commented on the events at the US Capitol beyond this tweet. His Twitter account currently has more than 170 thousand followers and his Twitch account with about 819 thousand.
Besides Shih, there have been several other notable gaming-related events related to the storming of the US Capitol. Twitch has removed the famous PogChamp emote following inflammatory comments made on Twitter by the face of the image, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez.
Photos have also emerged of a rioter with a symbol from the Dishonored series tattooed onto his hand. Several developers, including series co-founder Harvey Smith, have come out with public statements on social media debunking conspiracy theories linking the symbol to left-wing political movement Antifa and also condemning its appropriation by a member of the alt-right.
Hearthstone is available on PC and mobile.
