Snapchat is following Twitter’s lead in minimizing content from President Trump.
The social network famous for its funny face filters and disappearing photos on Wednesday confirmed to The Post that it would no longer promote Trump’s content on its “Discover” page, which hosts curated content from prominent accounts.
“We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” a spokesperson said. “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.”
The move does not remove any of Trump’s posts from Snapchat’s platform, nor does it block users from seeing anything he has posted. The president’s posts, however, will not be promoted on the platform to anyone who has not opted to follow his account.
Snap’s move arrives a week after Twitter set off a firestorm by flagging two of the president’s tweets about mail-in ballots as misleading and then shielding a tweet about police protests behind the warning label. The latter tweet referred to protesters calling attention to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police “thugs,” and warned that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his decision to let Trump’s posts speak for themselves — despite fierce backlash from employees who say the post that warns of shooting people violates its policies.
Twitter’s move prompted Trump to sign an executive order directing federal agencies to look at whether they can place new regulations on tech giants like Twitter, Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, saying that companies “like Twitter enjoy an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they are a neutral platform — which they are not.”