A spokesman for Snapchat announced that the social media app has permanently terminated President Trump’s account “in the interest of public safety.”
“Based on his attempts to spread misinformation, hate speech, and incite violence, which are clear violations of our guidelines, we have made the decision to permanently terminate his account,” the spokesman said.
Trump Campaign Advisor Jason Miller snapped back at the censorship, calling the move “about as damaging as being banned from Quibi.”
Snapchat is the newest platform on the list of social media companies that have banned the President from their networks. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Youtube have also taken steps to censor President Trump from public discourse.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made a statement to Twitter acknowledging that the decision to suspended President Trump’s account set a ‘dangerous’ precedent.
Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us. They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.
— jack (@jack) January 14, 2021
President Trump told reporters earlier this week that these sites are “dividing and divisive, and they’re showing something that I’ve been predicting for a long time. I’ve been predicting it for a long time, and people didn’t act on it.”
Just before he was banned on Twitter, the President said that he would “look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.”