What does Musk’s Twitter buying mean for Trump’s social truth?
Even after Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his plans to defend free speech, Truth Social offers a different experience.
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which was accepted by the company’s board of directors for an acquisition price of $44 billion, is set to make sweeping changes that cultivate its view of free speech on the platform. But what does this mean for Truth Social, an alternative media network created in opposition to other social media giants like Twitter? The social media company owned by Trump Media & Technology Group was established in 2022 following former US President Donald Trump’s ban from many mainstream social media platforms. Trump’s repeated tweets that Twitter deemed “against the public interest” during the January 6, 2022, uprising in the US capital resulted in a permanent ban on his account. Further suspensions and bans followed on major platforms, leaving the president without the voice on which he built his political campaigns.
The former president and entrepreneur responded by pledging to create his own alternative media network, which would become Truth Social. The platform launched in February 2022, but didn’t get off to a great start. It resembles Twitter’s user interface in many ways, but lacks the large user base and polished user experience elements that Twitter has honed for over a decade. Truth Social is actually hard to access in the first place – there’s no web client, and all users who want to join the network’s mobile apps are placed on a waiting list. Trump himself hasn’t even used the platform as much as he has used some of the other social media giants, like Twitter and Facebook. Along with Musk’s new plan for Twitter, including less moderation to protect free speech, that leaves Truth Social in a weird place. Who is the platform for?
It’s important to note that despite Twitter’s new ownership and Musk’s plan to take the company private, Trump has no plans to return to the platform. Instead, Trump is sticking with Truth Social, the platform responsible for providing an alternative to big tech. “We’re hosting millions of people, and what we’re seeing is the response on TRUTH is much better than on Twitter,” Trump said in a statement FoxNews. While those claims have been met with conflicting reports of technical difficulties and low user activity, Trump’s outside engagement with the platform would appear to put it in competition with Twitter. However, he doesn’t see it the same way. “No, I don’t see this as a competition for what I do,” he said.
Truth Social offers a different atmosphere
The changes Musk plans to make with Twitter won’t create the same vibe as the Truth Social network. At least in theory, Musk wants to foster a new version of Twitter that allows his supporters and critics to continue to voice their opinions without fear of repercussion. “I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter because that’s what free speech means,” Musk said in a Tweeter. The tech mogul believes that any censorship by private companies that goes beyond the law of the land — which is the First Amendment to the US Constitution, in the United States — is against the public interest. “By “freedom of expression”, I simply mean what is in accordance with the law,” Musk said in another Tweet. “I am against censorship which goes far beyond the law.“
I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter, because that’s what free speech means.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
Truth Social does not have the same ideology, at least practically. The platform was designed as an alternative to global social media conglomerates by and for Trump and his supporters. “This is a platform for my voice,“Trump told Fox News.”TRUTH is a platform for my voice and for my supporters.“Since the alternative media network is functionally similar to Twitter and is technologically deficient compared to other social media networks, the only logical reason to join the platform is to converse with like-minded people. While the former president hopes Truth Social is widely accepted with bipartisan interest, the concept is unrealistic in the current state of the network.While Musk’s intentions for Twitter aim to make the platform less censored for everyone, Truth Social offers a different experience – one where like-minded people can interact with each other in their own separate network.
Source: Fox News, Elon Musk Twitter 1, 2
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