How Twitter, Facebook Shrunk President Trump's Social Reach
January 15 2021 - 9:34AM
Dow Jones News
By Katherine Riley and Stephanie Stamm
When President Trump was blocked from posting to major social
networks late last week, he lost direct broadcast channels to
roughly 150 million followers and subscribers.
Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Snapchat parent Snap Inc. were
among the first popular social-networking sites to temporarily or
indefinitely suspend Mr. Trump's accounts on Jan. 6. The
suspensions came partly in response to a video Mr. Trump uploaded
to social media amid the attack on the U.S. Capitol that reiterated
unsubstantiated claims the election was stolen and expressed
support for the pro-Trump mob.
Although Twitter lifted Mr. Trump's suspension the following
day, the company then issued a permanent ban for subsequent tweets
he posted.
Several high-ranking White House officials, as well as the White
House itself, have official social-media accounts, but none come
close to the reach of Mr. Trump's personal accounts. On Twitter,
for example, neither the official White House nor the official
POTUS account, which stands for President of the United States and
is held by the sitting president, has amassed even half the
followers Mr. Trump himself has.
Other top social platforms, including Twitch and YouTube, have
followed Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat's lead, either temporarily
or indefinitely suspending Mr. Trump's accounts.
Suspending the president's account doesn't mean he is cut off
from the apps completely. In the days since being suspended from
YouTube, the president has appeared in videos posted by the White
House's account. The most recent video has 2.2 million views. The
White House posted the same video to its Twitter account; it has 11
million views.
Write to Stephanie Stamm at Stephanie.Stamm@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 15, 2021 09:19 ET (14:19 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Snap (NYSE:SNAP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Snap (NYSE:SNAP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024