Most social media platforms have banned or restricted Donald Trump’s accounts and the accounts of Trump supporters, including QAnon believers and ‘Stop the Steal’ followers, in the wake of the deadly January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
On Wednesday, American photo-sharing app Snapchat permanently deleted the outgoing US president’s account, AFP reported.
The move comes as the company fears that POTUS will use his Snapchat account to cause turmoil in the upcoming 20 January inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Snapchat first temporally suspended Trump’s account last week after the company concluded that the outgoing president promotes and spreads “hate speech, and incites violence” in violation of Snapchat rules against misinformation.
“Last week we announced an indefinite suspension of president Trump’s Snapchat account,” Snapchat spokesman said to AFP, adding that “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.”
The permanent Snapchat ban comes after Twitter, Shopify and several other social media platforms deleted Donald Trump’s accounts following the deadly riots in Washington DC, after 5 people were killed as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building, causing widespread damage and vandalism, in a failed attempt to oppose the certification of the election results.
Tech giants, US media and DC insiders from both sides of the political fence accuse Trump of inciting the protesters to deadly violence, resulting in an unprecedented second impeachment of the 45th US president by the House on January 13.
