Donald Trump’s Rule 23 conundrum
The new era of liberty has at last arrived. Finally, a social network where you can say what you like, when you like, about anything you like, and never fear the social media politically correct police. We have our freedom and it comes directly from the hand of Don. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty. We’re free at last.
Yes, Donald Trump has created the quintessential unfettered social media group called “Truth Social.” According to his shouty son, Don Junior, at Truth Social you will now be “free to exercise your First Amendment rights.”
Except for one thing. Rule 23 of the Terms of Service. You are not allowed to “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site.” In other words, welcome to Taliban Social. The last time we had this kind of “Truth” it was spelled “Pravda.”
Once again we see in microcosm what we have seen all along. When Republicans want freedom what they really want is freedom for them and not for us. Freedom to attack us and we have to sit there and take it. Freedom to Benghazi Investigation us and we can’t Insurrection Hearing them back. The relevant part of rule 23 — Catch-23, if you will — are the words “in our opinion.” Put another way, anything you say that they don’t like can be interpreted as a disparagement against them — in their opinion.
It is the first rule of despotism that you cannot criticize the despot. Republicans simply cannot stop themselves from being despotic. It is so deep in their natures that, for them, the very right to free speech comes with heavily freighted conditions.
But this is all what the British call a storm in a teacup, of course. Trump’s new social media platform is just another joke, and it will remain a joke. No one is going to care about what is being said there. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, those are the social media platforms people are interested in. No one is going to give a crap about some racist rant over on some radical right hangout with the pretentious name of “Truth Social.” You don’t need to be a Wall Street guru or business boffin to predict it. “Truth Social” has got failure written all over it.
Say what you like about Facebook — and I do, all the time. Which is finally the point. While it’s true I have many Facebook friends who’ve done their time in Facebook jail (and for reasons that I honestly don’t understand, I’ve never spent a night there) we can still post memes critical of Mark Zuckerberg with impunity. Such freedom is gone forever — let’s call it what it is — on “Trump Social.” Because nothing good can or ever will come from Trump. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.