For years Donald Trump has dominated social media, on top of being the most powerful person in the world. For the last five years he’s about all anyone has talked about, and his own tweets were furious, cruel, and frequent. That all changed in the last week. Starting with Twitter, almost all of the social media giants have either permanently banned him or severely limited his and his team’s abilities. There was one lone hold-out: Snapchat. But according to Axios, one week to the day after a whipped-up claque of his supporters attempted a failed coup, he’s gone from there, too.
Snapchat is permanently banning Trump. Statement from company: pic.twitter.com/kRjzqh8mjb
— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) January 14, 2021
Like other online services, the messaging app cited how dangerous he had become, especially in the wake of his failed bid for re-election. “In the interest of public safety, and 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,” their statement read.
Of course, much like some of the other, not-quite-Trumpian social media titans that have recently cracked down on him — especially Pinterest — it made some wonder: Was he even on there?
Thing I learned today: Trump had a Snapchat account?
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) January 14, 2021
According to Axios, though, the Trump team did in fact use Snapchat, to reach younger audiences. (Most Snapchat users are under 30.) To be fair, a cursory glance at any of his rallies suggests those attempts didn’t go gangbusters anyway, and even many of the MAGA rioters who stormed the Capitol last week were not that young. Turns out Charlie Kirk, the babyfaced Trumpist, will only make you so popular with the kids.
That said, it looks like Snapchat was doing more than most social media apps to punish him. Axios reports that Trump violated their policies against misinformation, hate speech, and inciting violence “dozens of times,” prompting them to outright remove said content from their coffers. So take that, Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg.
Now that Snapchat is out of Trump’s hands forever, some wondered if there are any social media services left to ban him.
Now that Snapchat has banned Trump, I’m refreshing Etsy every 5 minutes to see when he’ll post there. Stand by.
— YS (@NYinLA2121) January 14, 2021
(Via Axios)