Tech
Trump wants to open his own social network in the next few months
He'll face difficulty in finding someone who's willing to host such madness, though.
After years of tearing up the internet with his bad takes, Donald Trump has been very quiet on social media in the last couple of months. Enjoy that while it lasts. The most immediate past president of the United States is getting ready to launch his own original social network in the next “two to three months.”
It’s unclear what kind of experience Trump’s home-brewed social network will provide. Top Trump aide Jason Miller told Fox News that the new network will “redefine the game” and attract tens of millions of people, Deadline reports.
Even more unclear is how, exactly, Trump and his allies expect to host their own social network. Much of the internet’s backbone — including web hosting providers Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — have largely taken a stand against Trump’s penchant for spreading misinformation and inciting violence. But then again: Parler is back online, against all odds, and its users have far from given up on their rampant racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and general vitriol.
Trumpr — Here’s what we know about Trump’s pitched social network: nothing. Well, we now know he hopes to launch it in two or three months. That’s about it.
The network would likely take a hard stance against traditional social network moderation, much like alt-right favorite Parler. There’s a lot of overlap between Trump’s fan base and Parler’s user base — so much so that the network was entirely de-platformed after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Many of Trump’s closest allies, including his sons, used Parler in the years Trump was president. Trump himself never joined but only because he wanted a big cut of Parler’s profits in exchange for doing so.
Good luck booking that stage you speak of — It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Trump actually does hope to open his own Parler in the next few months. After months of stewing over his losses in Mar-a-Lago, Trump is surely itching for the validation of social media. He’s likely attracted to the idea of using his own social network to rally his supporters in pursuit of future political prowess.
More questionable is whether or not he’ll have the drive to do so despite the many setbacks such a project would inevitably face. The world’s biggest web-hosting platforms are no longer interested in hosting “free speech” social networks, and neither Apple nor Google want them in their app stores, either.
If he does get his social network off the ground, Trump would face competition from both Parler and the MyPillow guy.