Snapchat no longer wants to promote Donald Trump "inciting racial violence"

Text by: RFI Follow

The social network Snapchat, very popular with young people, accused this Wednesday June 3, US President Donald Trump of inciting "racial violence" and indicated that it no longer promotes its messages on its Discover page.

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Snapchat will no longer promote messages from Donald Trump. These will however remain visible to subscribers to their account and will appear when a user makes a specific search. "  We are not going to amplify voices that incite racial violence and injustice by promoting them for free on Discover  ", the social network's news feed where users can find news, recommendations and even publications from media or well-known figures, the company said.

Snapchat joins Twitter, which has placed warnings on messages that the American president sends to his more than 81 million subscribers. One concerned electoral fraud, which Twitter considered to be disinformation, and the other could suggest that the president was calling for the looting of looters. The two networks have however chosen not to ban Donald Trump entirely.

The latter took very badly the initiatives of Twitter, taking advantage of his audience on the network to denounce what he perceives as censorship and a confirmation of a bias from the left and anti-Republican party. The presidential campaign for his re-election also quickly published a press release accusing Snapchat of wanting to "  rig  " the November 3 poll.

The Snapchat announcement, like that of Twitter, comes as hundreds of thousands of people have been demonstrating for more than a week across the country against police violence against visible minorities and in particular the black population. The death of George Floyd, asphyxiated by a police officer while he was handcuffed and offering no resistance, at the end of May was the trigger for these demonstrations in a country already struck by a pandemic which made more than 100,000 dead and unemployed tens of millions of people.

Unlike Twitter or now Snapchat, Facebook has chosen not to flag or censor the President's messages in any way. A decision assumed by Mark Zuckerberg, the director and founder of the first social network in the world, but criticized very publicly by part of the staff of the company .

( With AFP)

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• Donald trump
• Social media
• United States