Snapchat is the latest platform to take issue with US President Donald Trump’s social media content, with the company announcing it is removing the president’s account from the app’s Discover tab.
This follows Twitter flagging certain tweets from Trump for containing misleading information and promoting violence.
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Snap CEO Evan Spiegel made the announcement in a memo sent to employees a the end of May.
“Every minute we are silent in the face of evil and wrongdoing we are acting in support of evildoers. I am sorry for waiting to share my feelings with you,” Spiegel said in the memo. The lengthy memo also included Spiegal’s views on racial inequality in America, as well as his views on the political change and action needed to move the country forward.
This led up to his announcement of a change in Snapchat’s promotion of the US president’s content.
Spiegel said that the company cannot promote accounts linked to people who incite racial violence — on or off the platform. This means that while the posts would remain on the platform, they will not be promoted by the company.
“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,” Spiegel said.
These accounts will no longer appear among the curated Discover tab. However, people who seek out or follow those accounts can still access the content.
Trump’s social media under increased scrutiny
Trump’s social media feeds have long been a source of contention for not being held to community guideline standards. But the issue has attracted more focus during the 2020 protests over police brutality against black Americans.
In response to protests and reported looting, Trump shared a tweet in which he said “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. Twitter users denounced the tweet for inciting and glorifying violence. While Twitter did not remove the tweet, the company flagged it for glorifying violence.
Twitter determined that it may be in the public interest for the tweet to remain available. However, they added a content warning to the tweet for violating Twitter rules.
An account that mimics the US president’s tweets was temporarily suspended when it shared the same tweet.
Experiment Update – Account just now coming off a 12 hour suspension. Took roughly 68 hours for Twitter to suspend me. The violating tweet has been deleted. Twitters reasoning for the violation? Glorifying violence. Experiment will continue. DMs will remain open. Thank you. https://t.co/fuxJFMERgP
— Will they suspend me? (@SuspendThePres) June 2, 2020
Feature image: MrJayW via Pixabay
