U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) will be streaming the popular game Among Us on Tuesday evening via a new Twitch channel she set up overnight after suggesting the idea on Twitter Monday.
The tweet received a lot of attention from high-profile streamers and personalities who wanted to join her in the game. Interested parties include fellow Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan “hasanabi” Piker, and popular streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys.
Other high-profile streamers and public figures who expressed interest include Ben “DrLupo” Lupo, WWE superstar Xavier Woods (real name Austin Watson), pro fighting game player Dominique “SonicFox” McLean, YouTuber Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Yang, FaZe Clan, San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence, and John Hoadley, Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 6th Congressional District. The idea of the stream, at least initially, was to promote voting in the upcoming elections in the United States.
Although her channel has just been set up, it already has 187K followers as of this writing.
Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to Twitch; In July she put forward an amendment to House appropriations bill H.R. 7617 that would have forbidden U.S. Armed Forces from spending appropriated funds to recruit young people for military service through live-streaming platforms such as Twitch or other esports-related activities. The amendment was defeated, but Ocasio-Cortez vowed to continue her fight against this practice.
During the fight to pass the amendment, the U.S. Army halted its streaming activities on Twitch, but returned after it was defeated in the House. The Army also revised its policies on streaming and how it handles banning people in chat prior to its return to the platform.
These activities first caught Ocasio-Cortez’s attention when the American Civil Liberties Union publicly criticized the Army for banning people for speaking out about “war crimes” in Twitch chat during live streams. The ACLU called these actions a violation of people’s free speech rights.
