Big Tech crackdown could extend far beyond anyone who was at Capitol Hill riot: Ben Domenech
Senior employees of Big Tech companies flood to the Biden administration amid a crackdown on Trump supporters; The Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech reacts.
Following an indefinite suspension of President Trump's account last week, Snapchat announced Wednesday that its decision is permanent.
"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," a Snapchat spokesperson told FOX News.
The social media platform said it had assessed "what long term action is in the best interest of our Snapchat community" following the riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6.
TWITTER CEO JACK DORSEY DEFENDS TRUMP BAN, BUT ADMITS COMPANY'S POWER SETS 'DANGEROUS' PRECEDENT
Snapchat first took action against President Trump in June when it stopped promoting the president's account on its Discover platform, limiting its reach to subscribers and those who searched for him.
"We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover," the company said at the time.
Since then, the platform repeatedly removed Trump's content and sent dozens of warnings to the president and his team for violating its community guidelines and terms of service. The terms prohibit the spread of misinformation, hate speech, glorification or incitement of violence.
The decision for a permanent ban comes after similar moves by Facebook and Twitter last week.
On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social network would block Trump’s account indefinitely after it was temporarily suspended for policy violations.
"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."
Just one day later, Twitter said it would follow Facebook's lead with a permanent suspension of Trump's account. It cited "risk of further incitement of violence" and removed a series of the president's tweets.
Meanwhile, YouTube said on Tuesday that it would temporarily suspend Trump's channel from uploading new content for at least the next week.
"After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies," the video platform said in a statement posted to Twitter. "It now has its 1st strike & is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a *minimum* of 7 days."
"Given the ongoing concerns about violence, we will also be indefinitely disabling comments on President Trump’s channel, as we’ve done to other channels where there are safety concerns found in the comments section," YouTube added.
YOUTUBE SUSPENDS TRUMP'S ABILITY TO UPLOAD NEW CONTENT INDEFINITELY
On Wednesday, Trump released a video denouncing last week's riots questioned the motives of those who would participate in such action.
"No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence," Trump said in a message from the Oval Office. "No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans. If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement. You are attacking it and you are attacking our country. We cannot tolerate it."
His comments were posted from the White House's Twitter account just hours after 10 House Republicans joined Democrats in impeaching him.
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As the days draw closer to President-elect Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, the FBI is reportedly warning armed protests could be staged at all 50 state capitals.
"In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking, and NO vandalism of any kind," Trump told Fox News earlier on Wednesday. "That is not what I stand for and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You."
Fox News' Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
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