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Ted Cruz trolled Donald Trump with a Snapchat filter at last night's debate

Ted Cruz trolled Donald Trump with a Snapchat filter at last night's debate

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Donald Trump has proved time and time again that Twitter can be a powerful tool when it comes to public debate and signal-boosting Nazis, but what about that other great digital medium, Snapchat? Ted Cruz tried his hand at the app formerly known as Millennial's Ruin last night, setting up a special geofilter mocking Trump's absence at the last Republican presidential debate before the Iowa caucus. The filter references the #DuckingDonald hashtag (which Cruz's social media team have been pushing on Twitter) and was featured in a Snapchat video from Cruz himself.

Cruz's national press secretary Catherine Frazier told the Independent Journal Review that the filter was available at the debate location in downtown Des Moines as well as at Drake University — the site of Trump's "counter-debate."

Cruz is not the only candidate to get in on the Snapchat filters though — Bernie Sanders has been running his own in Iowa, and the app has been selling such geofilters since September last year. Ordinary users can also submit their own, so long as they follow Snapchat's guidelines — e.g. no logos, no trademarks, no hashtags. In the end, though, nothing the other Republicans candidates tried actually distracted anybody from Trump's shenanigans — even Cruz's Snapchats. The only thing better than a disappearing candidate, it seems, is one who doesn't show up at all.

Update January 29th, 4:36PM ET: Updated with information about Snapchat's geofilters