Snapchat just became the latest social media company to bar President Donald Trump from posting on its platform
“We can confirm that earlier today we locked President Trump’s Snapchat account,” a Snapchat spokeswoman confirmed in a statement.
TECHCRUNCH: Snapchat locks President Trump’s account
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) January 7, 2021
The account was first locked on Wednesday just before the president’s video urging for people to leave the Capitol grounds.
While almost 2 million people are subscribed to view the president’s content on Snapchat, the company has not announced when the ban will be lifted. Instead, Snapchat said it is “monitoring the situation closely before re-evaluating its decision.”
On Thursday, Facebook announced it would ban Trump from its platforms, including Instagram, citing Wednesday’s tumultuous, destructive events at the Capitol as one of the main reasons for the ban.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete,” Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
Facebook previously announced on Wednesday that it would remove all photos and videos of the Capitol riots because they promoted criminal activity. This decision followed the big tech company’s censorship and removal of Trump’s video calling for peace and rule of law at the Capitol, claiming it instigated more violence.
“His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence,” Zuckerberg wrote in his most recent statement.
Twitter also recently announced a 12-hour lock on Trump’s account on Wednesday following a series of now-deleted posts that the company claims violated its Civic Integrity policy.