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Snapchat follows Twitter in censoring Trump, says it won't promote US president over 'inciting violence'

“We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” the company said in a statement
PUBLISHED JUN 4, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Snapchat will stop promoting US President Donald Trump's account on its platform as it flagged him for “inciting violence”. The decision means that posts from the president's account will no longer show in the app's Discover section, which is filled with content from publishers, Stories from people you follow but aren’t friends with, and Snaps from creators among other things. On Wednesday, June 3, the company announced in a statement: “We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover. Racial violence and injustice have no place in our society and we stand together with all who seek peace, love, equality, and justice in America.”

Snapchat became the second major social media site to have censored the president after Twitter started flagging his tweets. Unlike them, Facebook has allowed posting of the same message shared on Twitter but later hid by the platform. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the firm’s free speech stand did not allow the president's posts to be taken down or hid.

Snapchat's move follows Trump's comments over the weekend in which he threatened to send "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons" to stop George Floyd protesters if they breached the White House fence. But it has been said that the POTUS’ account will remain public on Snapchat, giving users the option to continue to search for and subscribe to it.

Snapchat's decision came amid nationwide protests happening in the US following the May 25 death of Floyd. The 46-year-old died last week while in police custody as an officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The move by Snapchat did not go down well with the Trump administration as the president’s campaign manager Brad Parscale called it a politically-motivated decision.

“Snapchat is trying to rig the 2020 election, illegally using their corporate funding to promote Joe Biden and suppress President Trump. Radical Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel would rather promote extreme left riot videos and encourage their users to destroy America than share the positive words of unity, justice, and law and order from our President,” the statement from Parscale read.

It added: “Snapchat hates that so many of their users watch the President’s content and so they are actively engaging in voter suppression. If you’re a conservative, they do not want to hear from you, they do not want you to vote. They view you as a deplorable and they do not want you to exist on their platform.”

On Sunday, May 31, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel sent a memo to his staff members that read he was “heartbroken and enraged by the treatment of black people and people of color in America.”

In a lengthy message to the employees, he wrote: “I believe the first and most important step is to reaffirm our commitment to our founding values as a nation: freedom, equality, justice, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We must work together to create a shared vision for future success and define what we want America to look like for our children’s children. This must be a process that involves all Americans and is “by the people, for the people.” If we can define the nation we wish to become, we can begin to take action and apply our values to the vital decisions that must be made in order to make our shared vision a reality.”

“We must begin a process to ensure that America’s black community is heard throughout the country, investigate the criminal justice system for bias and prejudice, strengthen the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and take action on recommendations for reconciliation and reparations made by the Commission. There is plenty to learn from those who have had the courage to undertake a similar process following atrocities around the world, and we should create a process that reflects American values and helps our nation to make the necessary change and heal,” Spiegel added in the memo published to the Snapchat blog on June 1.

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