Snapchat looks to be picking a fight with President Trump.
Snapchat will reportedly withhold Mr. Trump’s content from the Discover feature on its platform while allowing the president’s account to continue to exist and to continue sharing content. The company announced the decision on Wednesday to not host Mr. Trump’s content on its Discover feature alongside other elected officials and newsmakers.
“We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” a Snapchat spokesperson told The Verge. “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 began to restrict various voices on the Discover component of its platform this week, alongside a memo posted by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel on Monday.
“Our Discover content platform is a curated platform, where we decide what we promote,” Mr. Spiegel wrote. “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. 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.”
The Trump campaign responded by accusing Snapchat of trying to tamper with electoral politics in favor of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden.
“Snapchat is trying to rig the 2020 election, illegally using their corporate funding to promote Joe Biden and suppress President Trump,” Brad Parscale, Trump campaign manager, said in a statement. “Radical Snapchat CEO Evan Speigel 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.”
Snapchat’s decision to tussle with Mr. Trump comes on the heels of Twitter’s fight with the president. After Twitter took action to tag and restrict content from Mr. Trump, the president signed an executive order last week aimed at removing liability protections afforded to social media companies.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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