Trump finds new social network after Twitter ban

 Yet Trump's threats underscore his reliance on social media sites he has long insulted for alleged political bias

A few days before President Donald Trump's end of his term, Twitter's decision on Saturday sparked a furious political comeback among his most supporters, sending some of his supporters - and the White House itself - to another powerful dialogue online Scrambling to find equipment.

Several prominent conservatives, including Brad Parscale, Trump's former campaign manager, and Rush Limbog, the leading voice in right-wing radio - reacted to Trump's suspension by blasting Twitter, leaving the site outright or the president to turn to alternative services Encouraged the faithful. Trump himself indicated that he is in talks to join other social networks, and raised the possibility that he could build a new online platform on his own.

For now, the White House is considering a push against Twitter and other tech giants as early as Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter, the president's ability to reach supporters for a new regulation against Silicon Valley Destroying it to calm down. Who said on the condition of anonymity. Trump, who apologizes about being banned, plans to spend the last days of his term in the office railing against the industry, the person said.

Yet Trump's threats underscore his reliance on social media sites that he has long imbalanced for alleged political bias. On Twitter, the outgoing president leveraged more than 88 million of his followers to defend his rivals, promote allies and sometimes spread lies on a viral scale.

This massive online reach offered Trump an online megaphone that was unique in American politics. But his rhetoric was also bizarre - the consequences of which were fatal after a crowd of his supporters seized on his unbridled tweets about the 2020 election and a storm hit the US Capitol this week.

The president and his allies are now faced with a difficult technical and logistical challenge in relocating a new social network or setting up their own online hub, which until recently was enjoyed by grand audiences. It is likely to be very small in comparison. A more distant from mainstream platforms would signal more insular conservative communities to retreat and threaten to intensify the partisan divide in a country that Trump had already left on the sidelines.

"For more casual supporters of the president, I think they will receive his messages less frequently," said Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Brooking said, "Obviously, they'll have millions of hardcore supporters who are tied into broadcast sources taking their messages, or [they will] enter whatever online space they live in. But that's a small and There is going to be a more dedicated group, ”Broking said. , Expressing apprehension that they may become "extremely radical".

The removal of Trump from Twitter came as part of a wider broadcast on most parts of the mainstream web until late Friday, as tech giants including Apple, Facebook and Google took unprecedented steps to discipline apps, Users and accounts played a key role in preventing violence. Lockdown earlier in the week.

Before he banned Trump, Twitter removed a key doctrine of users associated with QAnon. Google-owned YouTube suspended channel linked to Trump's former campaign manager Stephen Bannon. And Google also removed Parler, a pro-Trump app, from its portal for smartphone software downloads where users have threatened further violence. Apple issued a similar threat to boot Parler from its App Store until the company improves its content-moderation practices.

The action reflects a new vigor on the part of Silicon Valley to allow harmful content to be picked up - from disbandment of elections to hate speech and violent threats. Congressional lawmakers, digital researchers, and human rights groups praised the moves this week, even citing them as too short, too late, to come near the end of Trump's term.

But the ban was a digital massacre in the eyes of Trump's conservative allies, many of whom celebrated him as censorship.

One of Trump's top aides, Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C), vowed that he is "more determined than ever to try to end legal protections for Facebook, Twitter and other social-media sites ", Making them defective in censorship. Limbaugh deleted his Twitter account, and fellow talk-radio host Mark Levine also announced that he would encourage users to do so. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., posted a widely watched video on Facebook, warning supporters that it's only a matter of time until social media companies "essentially give us all of them Don't throw away the platforms they censor too heavily and regulate in a way. " He urged Trump supporters for alerts on his website.

Trump Jr. said, "I'll tell you where I end, my father ends, where we can direct ourselves so that we can maintain it."

On Friday, Trump threatened to ban a new social-networking soon after banning Twitter, in which he said "she won't shut up !!" - and promised "a big announcement soon". More than any other social service, Twitter's loss seems to strike on a personal note: Trump was fascinated by the platform, liked to post a tweet, and the time it would take to pay attention to television. He would often pull out his phone and say, "Look at this, Bing Bing Bing," recalled senior administration officials.

The White House on Saturday declined to comment on the president's plans or timing.

However, Trump's team has been inundated with requests to join his alternative social networks - and his messengers have entertained conversations with other companies. But Trump has told allies that he prefers to launch his own services, according to two aides who warned that it could be possible and costly. He planned for lawmakers in the coming days to fail to repeal Section 230, a provision of federal law that holds tech giants accountable for content posted by their users. Such repeal could be backfired on Trump, with some experts taking note, resulting in him being quickly removed from Twitter.

His former campaign manager Parscale on Saturday encouraged the president to strike on his own. "I believe the best avenue for POTUS is to use its own app to talk to its followers," he said. If Apple or Google block the service, Parcel said, Trump has "a clear path to a victorious lawsuit against him."

Even before his suspension due to the capital riot, Trump turned to other social-media services. In the summer of 2019, Trump's aides at the White House and others on his reunion campaign discussed joining up with Parler, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to describe private conversations. Trump even invited the parlor's top executive to the White House as part of a broader social-media summit for the summer, where he unabashedly accuses Silicon Valley of being conservative online.

A closed, private account named @RealDonaldTrump - the same username the president once had on Twitter - has been inactive on the site since this June. The presidential campaign - under Team Trump - has also had an active account with Peller, returning in 2018. On Saturday, the Team Trump account blamed its nearly 3 million followers for posts that blamed Twitter for censoring the president. Parler did not respond to a request for comment.

Another conservative hub, Gab, took to Twitter to reveal "a big call with someone special" scheduled on Saturday. The company did not mention Trump or anyone else's name, but later tweeted a story that mentioned the president's talks with potential new social services, fuel speculation.

Like other pro-Trump online communities, Gab goes from much of Silicon Valley to abandoning aggressive enforcement against content that his critics see as harmful, dangerous, and violent. When asked about Gab's tweet, the company's chief executive, Andrew Torba, responded with outrage and otherwise declined to comment. Gab later tweeted on Saturday that the site "has no place for violence threats", noting that "there are thousands of volunteer users" who monitor it.

Many advisers said they believe Trump is unlikely to quickly join outlets like Parler because they feel it does not have an impact. Earlier this year, the president himself told colleagues of the 2020 campaign, the White House, and the Republican National Committee, that he would have his own platform, but repeatedly declined to name it, saying it was only "soon" Will happen.

But the president will face a difficult task in building up his social network. This can be a costly endeavor that can take years to make. Social-media sites are only attractive to users as they manage to capture a large number of them and their friends. Some experts said Trump may struggle to provoke an audience that sees the political nature of his digital endeavor.

"Creating a new network is very difficult," said Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. "Maybe it is so large and important that it can get a few millions of people to connect to the network. Economics will make it more internal and internal. Network is an option for people to reach a lot of different people Takes advantage of. "

But Trump's quest to regain his online reach - gaining himself a dominant voice as he prepares to relinquish the presidency - to serve as his own information gatekeeper of Republicans Marks only the latest effort from the side. The party and its allies spoke on radio starting in the late 1980s, established their sights on cable news in the 90s, and in recent years have erected a wide range of websites under the banner of conservative news Are operated. Social-media, experts said, is just the next frontier.

"The media's citation-indisputable liberal bias is not just an emphasis, it is a given reality on the right," said Lawrence Rosenthal, president of the Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California. Many conservatives now see the same bias in Silicon Valley. "It is the current incarnation of something that has been conferred on decades and decades of authority."