Snapchat, Shopify and TikTok ban accounts, web stores and videos from Trump

Snapchat and Shopify have deleted Donald Trump’s account and web store. The president can no longer post on Snapchat, and all web stores where the team behind the president sold merchandise have been shut down. TikTok is also taking action against the president.

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, confirms to TechCrunch that it has blocked the official account of the US president. It is following Twitter and Facebook, which blocked Trump’s accounts earlier this week following the storming of the Capitol. The account has since been released on Twitter. It is not clear how long the ban on Trump’s account at Snapchat will remain in place. The company tells TechCrunch that it will “continue to monitor” the situation.

Other tech companies are also taking action against the president’s behavior and the storming of the Capitol. For example, Shopify has blocked all online stores that sell presidential merchandise. These include Trump’s own web stores: both those of the Trump Organization and his presidential campaign. Anyone who now goes to shop.donaldjtrump.com or to trumpstore.com will see that the web stores there are suspended. The Canadian company said in a response to Bloomberg that it “does not support actions that incite violence.” Trump is said to have exceeded the “acceptable use policy,” a spokesperson said.

The president does not have an official account on TikTok, but the Chinese platform has also taken actions. On TikTok, the videos that the president recorded in recent days are banned. In those videos, the president repeats the lie that there was fraud during the elections, which is against the policy of misinformation on the platform according to TikTok. Certain hashtags such as #patriotparty and #stormthecapitol will also be removed.