(Politicizd) - In the recent decade, social media has overtaken the political world. Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, has seen its own users grow exponentially from 30 million users in 2010, to an overwhelming 350 million users in 2020. The growth, considered a product of Twitter’s efficient algorithm, and high profile users, exceeded that of every social media network besides Facebook.
Yet, with this growth came more scrutiny and political pressure, resulting in the termination of controversial President Donald Trump.
The termination, condemned by both sides of aisle, ignited the beginning of a partisan and 'politically correct' future for Twitter. The platform now covertly prides itself, on upholding the values of the Democratic Party.
This includes, blocking content detrimental to President Biden's campaign (see Hunter Biden Fiasco), deleting tweets supporting the Border Wall, and not allowing criticism of America's coronavirus response, more specifically talking about the vaccine and mask mandates.
In response, critics reiterated the importance of free speech, and public discourse as a foundation of American society.
Nevertheless, Twitter has continued its progressive push, with Jack Dorsey explaining himself in a congressional hearing, where he ultimately defended the platfrom and it’s questionable ways. (Alarmingly, he refused to commit removing Holocaust denial from the platform, saying there were two sides to the argument).
As a result, conservatives grew hungry for a new platform, ushering in the addition of Parler. However, the site gained little traction, becoming essentially irrelevant in the social media world.
Meanwhile, President Trump and his team pondered their own site, flirting with the idea of 'beating' twitter for the last 2 years.
Ultimately, now, that idea has come to fruition, with "Truth Social", set to become available in February 2022. (For now, you can 'pre-order it', on the App Store).
According to the Washington Post, "the site has been modeled after Twitter and users can make posts ("truths") and share other users' posts ("retruths"). The platform also features a newsfeed, called a "truth feed", as well as a notification system."
Financially , the Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) announced a merger with the Trump Media & Technology Group, leading to a 400% growth in its stock in just a few days.
Nonetheless, political pundits worry that the platform will encourage division and exacerbate the idea of two separate Americas. Further stated, if Trump's social media platform takes a similar approach to Twitter, and pushes a more conservative filter on its users, this predicament will be inevitable.
According to You Gov, over 69 percent of Republicans would be likely to use the former President's platform, with an additional 27 percent of independents saying the same.
Thus, it is more than conceivable that President Trump gets a real chance at proving his platform and competing with Dorsey's Twitter.
In achieving this, the former President must follow through on his own promise, closely. He must ensure that there is no censuring of any viewpoints, irregardless of how left-leaning they are. This obviously includes criticism of the former President himself.
The platform must also allow for a newsfeed that is not subjective to the criticism of himself, or the inner workings of "Truth Social". Previously, Twitter has issued biased news stories that present their own view of the story.
Still though, the platform will fail, if its algorithm is not properly designed and easily usable.
Parler, suffered its own defeat as it was released, with a weak algorithm, and buggy software, pushing many users away before it could even rehash its mistakes. Consequently, it is hugely important that the software is worked and re-worked prior to its release. Furthermore, Parler made costly marketing decision which also expedited it’s own demise. Of these included allowing the media to
brand the platform as a “right-wing twitter“. This immediately capped its influence and marketability to just the most right-leaning members of society.
”Truth Social” must ensure it that avoids this same fate by proclaiming and demonstrating a clear effort to reach both sides of the aisle.
Altogether, as the former President implements his new social media platform, many wonder how it will impact the political world, and potentially compete with the impressive tech giant, Twitter.
