Days after the attack on the US Capitol , US software company Salesforce announced that it has taken steps to prevent the Republican National Committee (RNC) from sending emails that could lead to violence, although the company explained that it would not say exactly what those steps are. The RNC uses ExactTarget, a Salesforce tool , for campaign emails .
Salesforce's move, first reported by Motherboard , comes after Trump 's campaign email urging supporters to "step up NOW" and "defend the integrity of this election," shortly before the violence that broke out at the Capitol on January 6.
Salesforce confirmed to The Verge that it has not removed the RNC as a customer. Specifically, a company spokesperson stated the following: “The Republican National Committee is a long-standing customer, predating the current Administration. We have taken steps to prevent our services from being used in any way that could lead to violence.”
However, the software company declined to explain exactly what measures it has taken, or whether its move could affect Trump's campaign, as well as the RNC.
Before the attack, the Trump campaign sent emails claiming election fraud and that the results should be overturned. Specifically, the campaign sent 569 emails between November 3 and January 6. Each email asked Trump supporters to donate money to the campaign. While it is not known how large the ExactTarget email list was, in 2018, the Trump campaign had contact information for 20 million supporters.
The RNC told Motherboard that it had decided to halt its digital fundraising efforts on January 6. The next day, another email service — Campaign Monitor — suspended the Trump campaign account. That alone would make it harder for the campaign to raise money.
Social media platforms are also taking action against Trump following the Capitol attack. Specifically, on January 7, Facebook banned the former US President from its platform indefinitely, while on January 8, Twitter permanently deleted his account.
