To stand up to the tyranny
In October, Donald Trump announced he was planning to launch a revolutionary technology company.
“I created Truth Social… to stand up to the tyranny of big tech,” he said.
By which he meant a Twitter clone that would let him tell any lies and scream any insults he wanted to.
The app launched on Presidents’ Day, 21 February, but six weeks later is beset by problems. A waiting list of nearly 1.5 million are unable to use it.
Truth Social looks a lot like Twitter, which banned Mr Trump from posting on the platform after a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol on 6 January, 2021. Twitter contended that Donald Trump, by making false claims the presidential election had been “stolen”, had incited violence. He was banned for life on 8 January, 2021.
Truth Social might look like Twitter, but it isn’t available on Android phones, web browsers or, apparently, to most people outside the US.
“It’s been a disaster,” Joshua Tucker, director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics, said.
And that’s a good thing.
Dana Millbank goes there so you don’t have to.
Heh…there’s been a conjecture that the right will have difficulty making effective use of computer technology because technically capable people lean left and won’t serve the right. Might be coming true.
I’m reminded of _The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight_, a roman a clef about the Brooklyn mafia by Jimmy Breslin. There’s a sub-text that runs through the novel; Breslin doesn’t get in your face about it, but it really stood out for me. All the characters in the book who do anything in the world–plumbers, carpenters, artists, accountants (even crooked accountants)–are good– competent–at what they do. The mafia people can’t do *anything*. Anything they put their hand to becomes a fiasco.
I have to say, Trump and his organization display mafia-level incompetence.
Dana Milbank says “I found a small clump of angry people shouting into a void.”
And that, in addition to the technical and managerial incompetence, is a big reason why this fails. The same way that all the other “conservative Twitter alternatives” have failed to take off in any major way — it’s no fun for most conservatives if they can’t “trigger the libs.” They don’t want to shout into a void. Conservatives who just want to talk amongst themselves already have plenty of alternatives: message boards, blogs, Facebook groups.
For many people — and here I’m not just referring to conservatives — the appeal of Twitter is getting to yell at, or at least “call out” and argue with, people they don’t like. It’s why so many Twitter users get so outraged at being blocked on Twitter, especially if it’s by a “blue check mark.” Getting in the ear of someone who doesn’t want to listen to them is the entire point for them.
The obvious fix is to make it available only on a phone that is sold by Trump.
Since “trump” is a UK-ism for “fart”, I humbly submit that Trump should give up on this “Truth Social” thing and create “Farter”. Each new thought from his head would be, of course, a “fart”, and we could become accustomed to hearing phrases like “Donald Trump spent many hours on his phone yesterday, farting”.
Someone pointed out recently that the fact that Elon Musk bought nearly $3b worth of Twitter shares in order to influence it shows, perhaps more than anything else, that Trump does not have $3b to spend.