Donald Trump’s new social network is even more of a joke than we thought
Even before the rise of Donald Trump, the GOP has long pretended to champion free speech only in cases where the concepts of free speech didn’t really apply and when it happened to be politically convenient for them. It’s a concept that’s regularly invoked whenever they go after social media giants like Facebook or Twitter for just banning users who violate their terms of service. Like he’s done with everything else, Trump has found a way to use their anger to line his pockets, by launching a social media network of his own: the not too catchily-named Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG).
Like just about everything he attaches his name to, it’s likely doomed for failure after it hacks the data of a few users and somehow grifts everyone involved. Aside from including Trump and the word “truth” in the same phrase, there’s an obvious problem immediately highlighted in the website’s terms of use: The agreement openly says that it will censor its users, should they say anything negative about the site. Naturally, it will just be a place for sharing idiotic right-wing memes and not much else, with the more reckless supporters probably avoiding the site due to it being easy for law enforcement to infiltrate.
Yet again, Trump has helped to prove that whenever conservatives claim to be proponents of free speech, they’re really talking about protected speech – that their own reckless and backward claims should always have a platform and people should be forced to listen.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making