This article was published on January 7, 2021

Snapchat joins Twitter and Facebook in blocking Trump’s account amidst Capitol violence


Snapchat joins Twitter and Facebook in blocking Trump’s account amidst Capitol violence Image by: Michael Vadon

Snapchat is now the latest platform to block President Donald Trump’s account after Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. All these platforms barred Trump from posting new content after his posts were deemed to be inciting violence.

“We can confirm that earlier today we locked President Trump’s Snapchat account,” a Snap spokesperson told TNW in a statement. The company added that it’s deeply concerned about the dangerous rhetoric from the account. The app stopped promoting his account in the discover section last June. 

All of these bans took place as thousands of people marched into the US Capitol and created chaos while Bidenw was confirmed as the next President. At the time of writing, at least 4 people were dead because of these riots.

Twitter sprung to action by removing three of Trump’s tweets, including a video that falsely made election fraud claims and asked the rioters to “go home.” The company also added that Trump’s account is facing a permanent ban after repeated violations of the platform’s policy. Currently, his account is barred from posting anything for 12 hours.

The <3 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Facebook also took action on the US President’s account and blocked it from posting for 24 hours on the blue app and Instagram. The platform said that the video was removed as it “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.” In a report, BuzzFeed News noted that rioters have been planning for this even on mainstream social media for weeks

Video streaming platform YouTube removed Trump’s video as well as it violated its policies on spreading misinformation about election fraud.

While Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube has banned Trump for 12-24 hours, Snapchat hasn’t set a time limit on the ban as of yet.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with