Snapchat announced Wednesday it will no longer promote President Donald Trump’s account after determining his recent tweets about the George Floyd protests glorified violence.
Over the past several days, Trump has taken to Twitter to rail against the nationwide demonstrations that have erupted in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. In one tweet, Trump referred to the protesters “thugs” and in another, he threatened to use “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” to stop them.
Although Trump didn’t make these statements on Snapchat, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel published a blog post on Monday stating that the company “simply cannot promote accounts in America that are linked to people who incite racial violence, whether they do so on or off our platform.” The company’s decision appears to reflect that stated directive.
“Our Discover content platform is a curated platform, where we decide what we promote. We have spoken time and again about working hard to make a positive impact, and we will walk the talk with the content we promote on Snapchat,” Spiegel wrote. “We may continue to allow divisive people to maintain an account on Snapchat, as long as the content that is published on Snapchat is consistent with our community guidelines, but we will not promote that account or content in any way.”
To be clear, Snapchat is not removing Trump’s account. Rather, it is no longer including it on its Discover page, which is a selection of accounts that has been curated by people and algorithms to reach a larger audience. However, Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, issued a statement in response to the decision, saying Snapchat is attempting to “rig” the upcoming presidential election and “actively engaging in voter suppression.”
Snapchat’s stance is just one of many taken by social media companies regarding Trump’s posts and their tendency to be inaccurate or inflammatory. Twitter has fact-checked two of the president’s tweets on voter fraud to date and labeled his looting and shooting tweet as glorifying violence. Trump swiftly retaliated with an executive order aiming to limit the legal protections social media companies currently have.
On the other hand, Facebook hasn’t deleted or labeled Trump’s recent posts, claiming they are newsworthy and should remain as they are in the name of free speech. In response, some Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout to protest the company’s decision.
How these various decisions will affect Trump’s presence on social media or his relationship with these companies remains to be seen. However, Spiegel was abundantly clear that, when it came to Snapchat, “there is no grey area when it comes to racism, violence, and injustice — and we will not promote it, nor those who support it, on our platform.”
