While Mark Zuckerberg is not too keen to remove controversial comments of the POTUS from Facebook, rival platform Snapchat has a different stance. They have demoted the account of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and removed it from their Discover page. The Verge has reported that Snapchat is not willing to promote Trump’s profile on their Discover platform. Although the profile has over 1.5 million followers, Snapchat is not willing to let that influence their decision. Discover is a space for Snapchat to showcase public figures, celebrities, elected officials, and others.
Official statement:
“We are not currently promoting the president’s content on Snapchat’s Discover platform. 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 is not very accepting of two particular posts made on Facebook. Those posts are essentially the President threatening violence against the protesters and anyone who dares to address the racial discrimination prevalent in the country.
I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the…
Posted by Donald J. Trump on Thursday, May 28, 2020
Trump has been facing similar stand-offs from other social media platforms as well. Recently, Twitter decided to add warning labels to 2 of the President’s tweets. The tweets about mail-in ballots were conceived as having the potential to mislead voters to reduce participation. This resulted in Trump issuing an Executive Order to review Section 230 laws. These laws protect social platforms from liability over what is posted by their users.
If the Order persists and changes the laws, all social media platforms will be affected by it, which has led to further escalation of the stand-off. Trump’s continued dismissal of the #BlackLivesMatter protests has only added fuel to the fire. Now all platforms are continuously assessing all his accounts and posts and regulating them as and when needed.
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1266272862052085760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1266272862052085760&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.socialmediatoday.com%2Fnews%2Ffacebook-employees-stop-work-in-protest-against-the-companys-inaction-on-i%2F578990%2F
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has published a detailed overview of the many forms of racial discrimination present in the country. He also offers potential solutions that systems can adopt to help the situation.
A small extract:
“For nearly 30 years I have personally witnessed or participated in the passionate and persistent, well-reasoned, and forceful appeal for justice in America and around the world. 30 years later, despite a chorus of millions calling for change, there is little to show in the way of progress. Economic inequality in America has reached levels unseen for nearly a century, people of color cannot visit a grocery store or go for a jog without fear of being murdered without consequence, and put simply, the American experiment is failing.”
Spiegel further adds,
“We simply cannot promote accounts in America that are linked to people who incite racial violence, whether they do so on or off our platform. Our Discover content platform is a curated platform, where we decide what we promote. 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.”
In response to Snap’s decision, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Parscale posted the following:
“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. 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.”
