Liberty’s New Torch in Social Media?
It had been reported recently that Trump associate Jason Miller had moved on to launch a new social media site. That site is GETTR, and while its official launch is Sunday, Independence Day, the 4th of July 2021, you can already sign up for an account there. You can even find me over there. The site certainly has a very familiar look and feel to Twitter, but I find the practice of calling posts simply “posts” much more sensible than concocting something like “tweets.” It’s also more honest. Does your average twitter user look like a bird anyway?
It will be interesting to see if this site is able to compete head-to-head with Twitter. As I said, they certainly have the right look and feel, but there are some differences. For instance, posts can be much longer, at 777 characters, which is nearly triple the permitted length of a “tweet” on the TwitNazi platform. Hopefully, we’ll soon see some indication of whether the new platform will be able to stand toe-to-toe with the Social Media giants, but it’s unclear what will be the significant distinction that will draw users to the new platform. Miller says that they won’t be de-platforming people due to their political views, and given the history of Twitter in effectively terrorizing conservatives, or anybody else who doesn’t comply with the compulsory narratives being pushed(vaccines, COVID, Hydroxychloroquine, Election fraud, and so on, to name a few,) that may be enough to steal a substantial number of users away. I’ll certainly be giving it a try.
In watching an interview with Miller on Bannon’s War Room, it seems like there’s a distinct commitment to free speech, but not to outright anarchy. Here’s a clip of the interview post on the WarRoom’s rumble account:
At present, there doesn’t seem to be a Direct Messaging function, but that may change in time. I’m certain that with the difficulties of putting up a new platform, GETTR probably wanted users to become familiar with the platform in a simplified form, and make sure basic functionality works as expected. If I were deploying a new platform, I’d certainly want to take a staged approach, and that seems prudent. It also makes sense to let users who get the word early come in and “beta test” the platform before the official launch. Nothing’s worse than launching a platform and having it collapse under the crush of new users and a code-base untested under actual real-world loading. Obamacare roll-out, anyone?
Here’s a quick capture of the page. You’ll notice immediately that the layout is very Twitter-like, with some differences:
There had been some early reports that President Donald J. Trump would be on the site, but so far, that hasn’t materialized. However, Don Trump Jr. is there, so the Trump family is represented on the platform. It will be interesting to see how this goes. So far, it looks pretty good, and to be blunt, I’m glad they’re sticking with things that are pretty widely accepted with users from the outset. Anything that makes it easier for users to learn and adopt the new platform is a smart strategy.
