Michael Kovac/Getty Images; Francois Mori/AP
- Snapchat has removed Donald Trump from its Discover section.
- The app took action against Trump's posts that have been accused of glorifying and inciting violence.
- The photo-sharing app's decision puts more pressure on Facebook, and makes Mark Zuckerberg look increasingly isolated.
- While Snapchat and Twitter both took action against Trump over the posts, Facebook insists they don't break its rules.
- Facebook's decision has prompted huge employee protests and resignations.
Facebook is looking increasingly isolated in its decision not to take action Trump over his controversial posts.
On Wednesday, Snap, the parent company of photo-messaging app Snapchat, announced that it was removing Donald Trump from its "Discover" section over a post he made about "shooting" in response to the ongoing US protests against racism and police brutality.
Twitter, too, earlier accused the president of "glorifying violence" — but Facebook has taken the opposite approach.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has insisted that Trump's post does not violate Facebook's rules, and it will not take action against the head of state over it. The decision has been intensely controversial — sparking internal worker protests, resignations, and denouncements from early employees at the company.
Still, the 36-year-old billionaire chief executive has not backed down, defending his position at a heated employee meeting on Tuesday.
But Snap's decision could place further pressure on Facebook to reconsider, and illustrates that the company's position is controversial — even within Silicon Valley.
"As for Snapchat, we simply cannot promote accounts in America that are linked to people who incite racial violence, whether they do so on or off our platform," Spiegel wrote in a memo. "We have spoken time and again about working hard to make a positive impact, and we will walk the talk with the content we promote on Snapchat."`
Snap's action is particularly notable because it came in response to a post that didn't appear on its platform. Twitter only took action on a tweet on its social network — affixing a warning label — while Facebook has refused to take action to a Facebook post.
But Snap determined that the president's off-network action was severe enough that it merited it taking action — an unusually strong approach to content moderation for a social platform.
Trump is not being banned from Snapchat, but he will no longer appear in Discover, a human-curated section of the app that highlights high-profile accounts and other content deemed important.
Over the past week, more than 300 cities around the US have seen mass protests, which were sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody. As the protests spread, Trump shared a post that said in part: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" — a phrase used by a Southern police chief during civil-rights unrest in the 1960s. (Trump has said he was not aware of the phrase's racist origins.)
Do you work at Facebook, Snap, or Twitter? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.
NOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 — this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time
See Also:
- A diversity consultant says real change may hit the tech industry due to the George Floyd protests and the coronavirus crisis. Silicon Valley hasn't changed much after past scrutiny, but this time could be different.
- Former Facebook employees wrote a letter to the company's leaders criticizing their 'cowardly' decision not to take action against Trump's posts
- Snapchat will stop promoting Trump's account in Discover: 'We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice'
