How Twitter, Facebook Shrunk President Trump's Social Reach

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 15, 2021 09:19 ET (14:19 GMT)

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