Which social media platforms does Trump seek to join after blocked from Twitter and Facebook?
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| Photo: AP |
LIST of platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far
YOUTUBE: YouTube is accelerating its enforcement of election misinformation and voter fraud claims against Trump and other channels. YouTube is typically slow to take action on bad content and accounts. Its response, while swift, was somewhat benign compared to competitors removing or disabling Trump's account. YouTube did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday that addressed the Capitol violence without fully condemning it.
TWITCH: Twitch disabled Trump's channel, citing the move as a "necessary step" to protect its community and "prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence." Twitch was one of the first platforms in June to temporarily ban Trump's channel for hateful content around the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.
SHOPIFY: Shopify took down two online stores affiliated with Trump — his organization and his campaign's merchandise sites — for violating its policies on supporting violence. Shopify had until Friday gone the farthest in actually de-platforming Trump, as his stores were permanently removed, not temporarily disabled.
REDDIT: Reddit has banned the subreddit group "r/DonaldTrump," a spokesperson confirmed to Axios on Friday. While not an official group or page hosted by the president, it's one of the company's largest political communities dedicated to supporting for President Trump. Reddit's site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals. In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed," a spokesperson tells Axios.
FACEBOOK: Facebook banned Donald Trump from posting on his Facebook accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete. On Wednesday, Facebook did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday addressing the violence without fully condemning it before taking greater action against Trump on Thursday.
TWITTER: Twitter announced Friday the platform will permanently ban President Trump's account effective immediately. It's Twitter's strongest-ever action against the president's account and comes in response to the "risk of further incitement of violence," per the social media company.
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| Photo: Twitter |
INSTAGRAM: Instagram banned Donald Trump from posting on his Facebook accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete. On Wednesday, Instagram's parent Facebook did remove the video Trump posted addressing the violence without fully condemning it before taking greater action against Trump on Thursday.
SNAPCHAT: Snapchat disabled Trump's Snapchat account Wednesday because it believes the account promotes and spreads hate and incites violence, a spokesperson said. Snapchat was one of the first major social platforms to take serious action on Trump's account for threats to democracy in June when the company said it stopped promoting his account in its "Discover" section, which features professional content and other prominent people.
APPLE: Apple on Friday threatened to remove right-wing-friendly social media app Parler from its App Store if Parler doesn’t lay out a plan to moderate its content. Apple is flexing its power to try to get Parler to moderate its content.
DISCORD: Discord says it has banned server The Donald, per journalist Casey Newton. The Discord account was connected to the pro-Trump social network TheDonald.Win.
TIKTOK: TikTok is removing content violations and redirecting hashtags like #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty to its community guidelines. Other hashtags like #stopthesteal and #QAnon have been redirected since last year.
PINTEREST: Pinterest has been limiting hashtags related to pro-Trump topics such as #StopTheSteal since around the November election, a spokesperson said. Trump doesn't have a Pinterest account, and the platform has tried to stay away from political content, but Pinterest hasn't been able to squelch it completely.
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| Photo: Parler |
In 2019, Trump campaign have a plan to launch its own social network app
According to Politico, Trump’s reelection campaign plans to launch a smartphone app this fall to encourage supporters to donate, volunteer and reel in like-minded voters — all while providing the president more unfiltered access to his followers. Supporters who download the all-in-one app are expected to be able to sign up for a Make America Great Again rally, canvas a neighborhood or call voters, maybe even register to vote as the campaign looks to turn passive supporters into activists.
"The app could help the campaign connect with potential voters as aides focus their reelection strategy more on turning out their conservative base on Election Day and less on persuading undecided people to vote for Trump', Politico's Article (Sep.8, 2019).
Trump scrambles to find new social network
Many prominent conservatives — including Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, and Rush Limbaugh, the leading voice in right-wing radio — reacted to Trump’s suspension by blasting Twitter, quitting the site outright or encouraging the president’s loyal following to turn to alternative services. Trump himself signaled he is in negotiations to join other social networks, and he raised the possibility he could create a new online platform on his own.
PARLER
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According to NYT, even before the Capitol riot led to his suspension, Trump had weighed turning to other social media services. In the summer of 2019, aides to Trump at the White House and others on his reelection campaign discussed joining Parler, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Trump even invited Parler’s top executive to the White House as part of a broader social media summit that summer where he blasted Silicon Valley over unproven allegations that they censor conservatives online.
A locked, private account with the name @realDonaldTrump — the same username the president once had on Twitter — appears to have sat dormant on the site since this June. The president’s campaign — under the account Team Trump — also has had an active account on Parler dating back to 2018. On Saturday, the Team Trump account blitzed their roughly 3 million followers with posts that faulted Twitter for having censored the president. Parler did not respond to a request for comment.
 Top 15 most popular social networks in the World Social networking sites have proved their important role in both the work and life of people in the world in general and in the U.S ... |
GAB
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Another conservative hub online, Gab, took to Twitter to reveal it had a “big call with someone very special” scheduled on Saturday. The company did not mention Trump or anyone else by name, but later tweeted a story mentioning the president’s negotiations with potentially new social services, fueling speculation.
Like other pro-Trump online communities, Gab departs from much of Silicon Valley by eschewing aggressive enforcement against content that its critics see as harmful, dangerous and violent. Asked about Gab’s tweet, the company’s chief executive, Andrew Torba, responded with an insult and otherwise declined to comment. Gab later tweeted Saturday that “threats of violence have no place” on the site, noting it has “tens of thousands of volunteer users” who monitor it.
| Gab already has set up an account for Trump, in hopes that he’ll move away from Twitter, and it already has 440,000 followers, Boston globe said. Parler has a little more than eight million registered users and Gab a mere 1.1 million, compared to about 330 million worldwide for Twitter. So he faces an immediate dropoff in his online visibility. |
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| Photo: Forbes |
Trump hints announcing his own platform
In a statement Friday, Trump said: “We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.” Ironically, Trump tried to tweet the message over the official White House account @POTUS, mere hours after the Twitter ban.
The statement appeared on Twitter for only a few minutes, if not less. To enforce the ban, the company was quick to remove the content and lock down access to the @POTUS account. However, journalists including one at PCMag managed to save screenshots.
Trump may launch his own platform. But that won’t happen overnight, and free speech experts anticipate growing pressure on all social media platforms to curb incendiary speech as Americans take stock of Wednesday’s violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a Trump-incited mob, AP News reported.
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