Snap says it will no longer promote Trump’s account

Snap said Wednesday that it has stopped promoting the Snapchat account of President Donald Trump after determining that his public comments off the site could incite violence, in another hardened stance by a social media company against the president.

Snap, which makes the Snapchat app that is popular among young users, said Trump’s account will remain intact but will not be promoted on its Discover home page for news and stories. Trump’s account was previously regularly featured on Discover, along with the accounts of other high-profile users like Kim Kardashian, actor Kevin Hart and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Snap’s move is part of a toughening position by social media companies against Trump’s posts, which are often aggressive and contain threats and inaccuracies. Over the past week, Twitter has labelled several of the president’s tweets for misinformation on voting and glorifying violence. In contrast, Facebook has not touched Trump’s posts, arguing that they are newsworthy and should remain up in the name of free speech.

Snap said it decided to stop highlighting Trump’s account based on tweets he posted Saturday in which he threatened to send “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” into the protests that have erupted across the nation after the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. The comments did not appear in Trump’s Snapchat account.

“We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” said Rachel Racusen, a Snap spokeswoman.

After Trump’s comments, Evan Spiegel, Snap’s chief executive, addressed them in a lengthy message to his employees.

“We will make it clear with our actions that there is no gray area when it comes to racism, violence and injustice,” Spiegel said in the memo that was posted on Snap’s blog Monday.

But the company would not remove accounts, he added.

Trump has been embroiled in a confrontation with social media companies since Twitter began labelling some of his tweets last week. He immediately accused Twitter, his preferred social media platform where he has more than 81 million followers, of stifling his speech.

Twitter has since pressed ahead in labelling more tweets by public officials, while Facebook has faced criticism for doing nothing about Trump’s posts.

Trump has a following of about 1.5 million people on Snapchat, according to Bloomberg.

© 2020 New York Times News Service