Snap Inc., as a result of a decision made last week, has removed U.S. President Donald Trump from the Discover section on Snapchat. The fundamental reasoning behind the move is Trump’s inflammatory racist comments made last week in the extremely sensitive George Floyd case.
Snapchat will join a slew of silicon valledy social media companies, who have come out in a rare display of joint support towards Trump’s comments. The platform has banned Trump’s account from its Discover section. The ‘discover’ feature is a curated platform where the company itself decides what to promote.
“We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” the company said in a statement. “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.” it added. Consequently, The company’s shares fell by 2.4%.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale accused Snap of trying to “rig the election by promoting Biden while suppressing Trump’s content”. In a statement, he said Snap promoted “extreme left riot videos and encouraged users to destroy America”.
Former Obama administration Vice President Joe Biden, who is a U.S. presidential candidate for the upcoming elections said in a video that he is “proud to run for president and still be on Snapchat”. The video was posted on his official snapchat page.
Last week, Twitter too, placed labels on several of Trump’s tweets which violated its “rules on misleading information and glorifying violence.” On the other hand, Facebook declined to take any action on the same posts, prompting an employee protest on Monday.
