When Trump was on Twitter
“If you can’t beat them, secede from them.” That seems to be the Republicans’ motto these days. On social media, for example, Republicans have attempted several times to establish their own conservative platform, essentially a bubble that would cancel truths and opposing views in favor of the monolithic GOP take. Do you remember Parler? How about GETTR, a name that sounds a lot like Donald Trump‘s and Jeffrey Epstein‘s former dating technique?
With that stellar track record to go by, now Trump, who was previously kicked off Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for instigating the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, says he is launching another new right wing social media platform, to be called, ironically, “TRUTH Social.” However, in this case, the TRUTH is not all what it seems.
First, perhaps not surprisingly, Trump is trying to finance his TRUTH social media venture using a speculative instrument called a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or “SPAC,” which the Wall Street Journal describes as “a blank-check firm” and “a shell company that lists on a stock exchange with the sole intent of merging with a private firm to take it public.” More importantly, according to the Journal, in this case:
The Digital World Acquisition SPAC has about $290 million on hand. Mr. Trump’s firm could use the money held by the SPAC to fund its growth, but that cash pile could shrink. That is because SPAC investors have a right to pull their money out of the deal before it is completed. Such withdrawals have skyrocketed in recent months, with shares of many SPACs falling after some companies that went public this way struggled to meet their growth targets.
Second, ironically, users of TRUTH must agree to Terms of Service which prohibit “disparage[ment]” of the site or its owners. In other words, TRUTH is practicing the very “Cancel Culture” that Trump and other Republicans falsely attribute to Democrats as a reason to start rival conservative social media platforms in the first place. Anyone who has used social media for even a week knows that it is a hotbed of “disparagement,” criticism, and often downright mean opinions about anything and everybody, including of course politicians, celebrities (both of which describe Donald Trump), as well as the platforms themselves. That is a very common occurrence on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. For example, when Twitter releases or changes one of its features, Twitter asks users for feedback, and such users often criticize the company or its CEO, Jack Dorsey, directly for problems, or even dangers, associated with the feature.
Can you imagine that happening, without consequences, in Trump Land? On the contrary, it seems more likely that TRUTH won’t be able to handle the truth. Accordingly, we predict that TRUTH will succeed just as well as Donald “The Bankruptcy King” Trump’s other businesses.
Photo by osseous, used under Creative Commons license. https://rb.gy/efarbc
