Maltese digital company dumps Trump after using online platform

The Maltese company running the international Hotjar platform has thrown out the Republican National Committee and the Trump-Pence campaign from its client list.

Hotjar helps website administrators understand audience analytics and deciphering the behaviour of its users.

The change in policy came after the company was informed that the Trump-Pence campaign merchandise website uses Hotjar.

Further investigation showed the Hotjar account was being managed by the RNC and other GOP-related websites.

Hotjar founder and CEO David Darmanin said his company had updated its policy to stop taking money from the RNC.

“Donald Trump has said racist and hateful things as the evidence that anyone can access on the internet shows, as well as has taken a number of actions that have targeted marginalized groups. ‘Make America Great Again’ has become a rallying call of far-right groups across the United States, and statements like ‘Build the wall and crime will fall’ might not be linguistically racist, but they have become contextually racist,” he said.

Darmanin said the Republican party’s failure to call out the promotion of racism, division and discrimination mean that the values displayed do not align with the company’s. “In the spirit of living our value of working with respect, we have decided to take action.”

Hotjar pointed out that while the account can be deactivated from their end to stop data collection, it is up to the account owner to take steps in removing tracking script from their website. “We recognize that this decision may bring us some backlash, and it may result in divided reactions among our community – but we’re willing to put ourselves in an uncomfortable position to stand by our values, and the promise we made to our team to uphold these values,” the statement read.

Read the change in policy here.